ASHTON, W.Va. — The Symmes Valley Vikings were cruising along offensively. They just needed to leave a speed bump behind them.

The Vikings had their offense going, but so did the Hannan Wildcats early. After figuring out how to slow down the Hannan offense, the Vikings raced to a 76-58 win Tuesday.

Symmes Valley scored 27 points in the first quarter only to see Hannan score 23. Things changed in the second quarter as the Vikings outscored the Wildcats 21-11.

“I knew we had to slow them down in the first quarter because we couldn’t keep going at that pace,” Vikings coach Alvin Carpenter said. “I didn’t know if we could maintain our offensive pace, so we had to stop them and we finally did.”

Anthony Owens scored eight points in the first quarter to help offset 10 points by Kevin Blake as the Vikings took the 27-23 lead.

Michael Humphreys scored eight points in the second quarter as Symmes Valley opened up a 48-34 halftime lead.

Humphreys got eight more points in the third quarter and the defense held the Wildcats scoreless untinl the 1:21 mark. The Vikings limited them to just six points and it was 68-40.

Blake had 10 points in the fourth quarter as the Vikings coasted to the win.

“We played pretty well other than the first quarter,” Carpenter said.

Humphreys led the Vikings (5-8) with 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

Owens finished with 15 points while Kirt Shipley added 11 points. Kyle Meadows had 10 rebounds and four steals. Tyler Smith had seven assists and four steals.

Blake led all scorers with 25 points as he hit five 3-point goals for Hannan (7-3).

Sym. Valley2721208=76

Hannan2311618=58

SYMMES VALLEY (5-8): Tyler Smith 2 0 2-2 6, Kirt Shipley 4 1 0-0 11, Chris Capper 3 0 0-2 6, Seth Saunders 2 1 1-2 8, Kyle Meadows 2 0 0-0 4, Justin Wiseman 0 0 1-2 1, Matt Owens 2 3 2-2 15, Jerry Johnson 1 0 1-2 3, Michael Humphreys 9 0 0-0 18, Alex Burnett 2 0 0-0 4. Totals: 32-76

(5-16)

7-12

76. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 48 (Meadows 10, Humphreys 10). Turnovers: 16. Assists: 18 (Humphreys 7, Smith 7). Steals: 12 (Meadows 4, Smith 4). Blocked shots: Capper 3, Meadows 2.

HANNAN (7-3): Ryan Canterbury 4 0 1-2 9, Kevin Blake 5 5 0-0 25, Bradley Edmonds 4 0 0-0 8, Wesley Gue 3 0 3-4 9, Aaron Payne 1 1 0-0 5, Patrick Flora 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 24-65

(6)

4-6

58. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 23 (Gue 10). Assists: 9 (Blake 4). Steals: 6 (Blake 2, Canterbury 2). Turnovers: 14.