BEAVER --The Beaver Eastern Eagles put together a streak that threatened to continue a dubious streak held by the Symmes Valley Vikings.

Despite an unanswered 28-0 scoring spree by the Eagles, the Vikings managed to rally for a 67-63 win Tuesday and claimed at least a share of the first league basketball championship in school history.

The Vikings are 11-2 in the Southern Ohio Conference and can win the league outright with a victory at Green on Friday. Green can throw the league into a three-way tie with a win. Green is 10-3 and East is 11-3.

"They were disappointed they didn't win their tournament game, but they were happy to win the league. That was one of their goals," Vikings coach Alvin Carpenter said.

"After getting beat in the tournament, they could have thrown in towel after Eastern went on that run. But they played good ball and six different people scored in the fourth quarter. No one cared who scored, they just wanted to win."

Symmes Valley High School was opened in 1962 as a consolidation of four different high schools.

Beside winning its first league title, the Vikings also posted a third straight winning season for the first time in school history. The 14-6 overall record marks the second most wins ever for the Vikings. They won 18 games two years ago when they advanced to the regional semifinal for the first time ever.

Kyle Gilmore scored 18 points to lead four Vikings in double figures. J. D. Miller had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Terry Elswick had 12 points, eight assists and seven steals and Kevin Miller added 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Adam Mathews scored a game-high 28 points for Eastern. Jacob Dixon had 15 points.

Kevin Miller had 5 points in the first quarter as Symmes Valley took a 19-12 lead.

The Vikings were up 12 points with three minutes to play in the half when Eastern came back to within 32-26 at the half.

Eastern then scored 20 straight points to begin the second half and went ahead 46-32. Gilmore hit three 3-pointers in the quarter, the last just before the buzzer that cut the deficit to 48-42.

Mathews scored 10 points and the Eagles were 10 of 15 from the line in the fourth quarter, but the Vikings sank 10 of 14 free throws with Gilmore making six straight over the final two and one-half minutes and Elswick knocking down two more with 12 seconds left that put the lead at 67-63.

Carpenter was pleased with the comeback and foul shooting down the stretch, but he was also happy with the play of T. J. Grubbs off the bench in the fourth quarter comeback.

"Grubbs really stepped up. We started pressing and he was all over the floor and getting rebounds," Carpenter said. "He really got physical."

Sym. Valley19131025--67

Eastern12142215--63

SYMMES VALLEY (14-6, 11-2):

Kyle Gilmore 0 4 6-6 18, Terry Elswick 4 0 4-6 12, T. J. Grubbs 1 2 0-2 8, Kevin Miller 5 0 1-1 11, Justin Holland 0 0 1-2 1, J. D. Miller 8 0 1-5 17, Seth Colegrove 0 0 0-0 0, Cory Burcham 0 0 0-0 0, Matt Owens 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-64

(6)

13-22

67. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: Kevin Miller. Rebounds: 35 (Kevin Miller 12, J. D. Miller 10). Assists: 10 (Elswick 8). Steals: 14 (Elswick 7). Blocked shots: 3 (J. D. Miller 2, K. Miller 1).

BEAVER EASTERN:

Donny Burton 1 1 2-2 7, Adam Mathews 4 3 11-12 28, Jerod Nichol 1 0 0-0 2, Kevin Greene 2 0 2-4 6, Dustin Montgomery 2 0 1-1 5, Jacob Dixon 6 0 3-5 15. Totals: 16

3

19-24

63. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: Greene.