It wasn’t a case of how but when.

Symmes Valley had only 12 turnovers, but they were just enough to spoil a strong upset bid attempt as the Vikings lost 56-51 to the Southern Ohio Conference leading Western Pike Indians Tuesday.

“We didn’t have a lot of turnovers, but we had them at the most critical times,” said Vikings’ coach Alvin Carpenter.

Symmes Valley rallied to take a one-point lead with 2:40 left in the fourth quarter, but a turnover gave the ball back to Western and the Indians converted to take the lead for good.

The Vikings trailed most of the game until the fourth quarter.

Bobby Smithson scored 14 points in the first quarter as Western jumped out to a 20-10 lead. Josh Craft hit a pair of 3-pointers for the Vikings.

Ben Shanks had six points in the second quarter as Western held to a 28-19 lead.

Symmes Valley cut the deficit to 40-35 after three quarters and Luke Taylor scored 12 points in the fourth quarter as the Vikings took the lead.

But behind eight points by Chris Penwell in the quarter the Indians were able to regain their composure and remain atop the SOC I at 10-1 and 12-4 overall.

Symmes Valley (6-10, 5-6) was led by Taylor with 21 points and seven rebounds. Leading scorer Kris Tibbs faced double teams the entire game and had only seven points but he did grab 10 rebounds.

Smith scored 20 points, Shanks 15 and Penwell 14 to lead Western.

Western Pike 20 8 12 16 = 56

Symmes Valley 10 9 16 16 = 51

WESTERN PIKE (12-4, 10-1): Bobby Smithson 5 2 4-7 20, Chris Penwell 3 2 2-3 14, Jade Hall 0 0 1-2 1, Ben Shanks 7 0 1-6 15, Kory Bakenhaster 2 0 0-0 4, Jacob Leslie 1 0 0-2 2. Totals:

SYMMES VALLEY (6-10, 5-6): Josh Craft 0 3 0-0 9, Kris Tibbs 3 0 1-2 7, Luke Taylor 9 0 3-7 21, Robbie Powell 1 1 0-0 5, Justin Payne 0 0 0-0 0, Brandon Bowling 2 0 0-0 4, Ryan Stanley 2 0 1-2 5, Jesse Graybeal 0 0 0-0 0, Hunter Johnson 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-52 5-11 51. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 4-21. Rebounds: 34 (Tibbs 10, Taylor 7, Stanley 7, Johnson 7). Assists: 10 (Johnson 6, Craft 3). Steals: 5 (Taylor 2, Craft 2, Johnson 1). Turnovers: 12.