BEAVER — What looked bad from the start wasn’t so bad at the end.

The short-handed Coal Grove Lady Hornets were facing the Southern Ohio Conference Division I league-leading Eastern Lady Eagles Monday and they were heavy underdogs.

But the Lady Hornets still gave a valiant effort before falling in the final minutes 64-56.

“We didn’t have (point guard) Ashley Adkins and we were playing a good team on the road. We played pretty well. We had a chance to win,” said Lady Hornets’ coach Nick Miller.

Coal Grove (7-11) opened the game with a 13-1 run and led 14-7 at the end of the quarter as Chelsea Delong scored 8 points.

The Lady Hornets used 8 points by Kelli McMackin to pull in front 30-13 with two minutes left in the half. But Eastern used an 8-0 run to end the half and cut the deficit to 30-21 at the break.

Coal Grove managed just 8 points in the third quarter as Eastern rallied to take a 39-38 lead.

Taylor Fleming and Delong scored 7 points each in the fourth quarter as Coal Grove trailed by just one point late, but Courtney Rowe hit a big 3-pointer and converted 8-of-8 from the foul line for the Lady Eagles.

Eastern was 12-of-13 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. The Lady Eagles were 23-of-30 from the line for the game while Coal Grove was just 8-of-12.

Delong finished with a game-high 22 points. McMackin and Fleming scored 12 points each. It was a career-high for Fleming.

Rowe scored 21 points and Rachel Staker 15 for Eastern (14-4).

Coal Grove will host Rock Hill at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. It will be Senior Night and there is no junior varsity game.

Coal Grove 14 16 8 18 = 56

Eastern 7 14 18 25 = 64

COAL GROVE (7-11): Katey Erwin 0 0 0-0 0, Kelli McMackin 4 0 4-4 12, Taylor Fleming 1 3 1-3 12, Ashley Goad 1 1 0-1 5, Cheyenne Bellomy 0 0 0-0 0, Amanda Collins 0 0 1-2 1, Chelsea Delong 4 4 2-2 22, Darrien Hankins 2 0 0-0 4. Totals: 12 8 8-12 56. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: Collins.

BEAVER EASTERN (14-4): R. Day 1 0 3-4 5, B. Mounts 0 0 2-2 2, M. Fitch 2 0 3-5 7, C. Brown 1 0 4-4 6, A. Howell 4 0 0-1 8, Courtney Rowe 2 3 8-9 21, Rachel Staker 6 0 3-5 15. Totals: 16 3 23-30 64. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.

Symmes Valley 48,

Ports Notre Dame 27

WILLOW WOOD — The Symmes Valley Lady Vikings played quick change artists.

Changing defenses the entire game, the Lady Vikings were able to clamp down on the Portsmouth Notre Dame Lady Titans’ offense and get a 48-27 Southern Ohio Conference win Monday.

“We played pretty good defense tonight,” said Lady Vikings’ coach Lisa Bryant. “We are still struggling from the field, but we came out and switched up our defenses which our kids did well and ended up getting 21 steals.

“We held them to only one point in the third quarter and seven in the fourth quarter.”

Jessie Morris and Brooke Skinner had 5 steals each and Nikki Nance 4 to trigger the defensive effort.

Morris also led the offense with 14 points. Erica Corn and Skinner scored 11 points each for the Lady Vikings (7-10, 7-6). Skinner also hauled down 11 rebounds.

Corn and Morris combined for 7 points in the first quarter as Symmes Valley took a 14-10 lead.

Each team scored 9 points in the second quarter and the Lady Vikings led 23-19 at the half.

But Skinner had 6 points in the third quarter and the defense limited the Lady Titans to a foul shot as the lead jumped to 32-20.

“We started to get a little passive on the offense end in the second quarter and we were not patient at all. After making some adjustments on the offensive end at the half, we came out and outscored them,” said Bryant.

Morris had 6 points and Corn 4 to offset 5 points by Notre Dame’s Jen Arnzen and the Lady Vikings continued to pull away.

The Lady Vikings play at Latham Western Thursday in their final league game.

“This is a good win for us and, hopefully, we can be successful in our last game of the regular season. We want to gain some momentum going into next Monday’s sectional tournament,” said Bryant.

Notre Dame 10 9 1 7 = 27

Sym. Valley 14 9 9 16 = 48

PORTSMOUTH NOTRE DAME (6-11): Hannah Shupert 2 0 3-67, Erin Monroe 1 0 2-4 4, Katie Delabar 0 0 3-4 3, Paige Sammons 20 0-0 4, Lee Ann Morgan 0 0 0-2 0, Jen Arnzen 4 0 1-1 9. Totals: 9 0 9-17 27. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: None.

SYMMES VALLEY (7-10, 7-6): Nikki Nance 1 1 0-0 5, Brooke Skinner 5 0 1-4 11, Chelsea Wall 1 0 3-5 5, Jessie Morris 5 0 4-6 14, Kayla Hayes 1 0 0-2 2, Erica Corn 4 1 0-0 11, Ada Humphrey 0 0 0-0 0, Caitie Bloomfield 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-63 8-17 48. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: Nance. 3-point goals: 2. Rebounds: 29 (Skinner 11, Wall 5, Nance 4). Assists: 4 (Corn 3). Steals: 21 (Morris 5, Skinner 5, Nance 4). Turnovers: 10.