Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

WILLOW WOOD — There was one simple reason the Western Indians were able to hang on and beat the Symmes Valley Vikings.
They’re good.
The Vikings battle one of the Southern Ohio Conference favorites to the final horn only to fall 62-55 on Tuesday.
“Western is a really good, veteran basketball team. They have all five starters back and are very well-coached,” said Vikings’ coach Chad Coffman.
“We came out with a great deal of focus and played really hard. (Western) had a really good run to end the first half.”
Jack Leith had 27 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and three blocks to lead the Vikings (0-5, 0-2). Drew Scherer had 12 points, four assists and three steals while Luke Leith got eight points and five rebounds.
Lane Brewster had a game-high 29 points with Alex Humphreys and Maverick Ferneau scoring 10 points each for Western (2-0, 2-0).
The Vikings took a 14-12 first quarter lead as Jack Leith scored eight points to offset 3-pointers by Western’s Colton Montgomery, Ferneau and Humphrey.
But Brewster too over with three 3-pointers and scored 12 points as the Indians used a couple of late 3-poiners by Sheldon Richardson and Humphrey to take a 34-26 halftime edge.
Brewster scored nine points for Western while Jack Leith had seven points and Scherer hit two trifectas and each team scored 15 points in the third quarter to make it 49-41.
Jack Leith had eight points — he was 4-of-6 at the line — and Scherer made 4-of-4 free throws in the fourth quarter as the Vikings tried to really, but Brewster was 4-of-6 at the line and score six ionts, Ferneau hit a 3-pointer and scored five points and Broc Jordan was 2-for-3 at the line to secure the win.
“We really competed but we just couldn’t get that big basket or big stop to get all the way back. They were able to put us away by hitting free throws,” said Coffman.
Western was 10-of-17 at the foul line for the game and Symmes Valley went 13-of-21 at the charity stripe.
The Vikings travel to Portsmouth Notre Dame on Friday.
Western 12 22 15 13 = 62
Sym. Valley 14 12 15 14 = 55
WESTERN (2-0, 2-0): Coleman Gibson 0 0 0-0 0, Austin Beckett 1 0 0-0 2, Maverick Ferneau 2 2 0-0 10, Colton Montgomery 0 1 0-1 3, Sheldon Richardson 0 1 0-0 3, Alex Humphrey 0 3 1-2 10, Lane Brewster 6 4 5-9 29, Brock Jordan 1 0 3-5 5. Totals: 10 11 10-17 62. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None.
SYMMES VALLEY (0-5, 0-2): Luke Leith 4 0 0-1 8, Jack Leith 10 0 7-1027, Drew Scherer 1 2 4-6 12, Alec Carpenter 1 0 0-0 2, Josh Ferguson 0 0 0-0 0, Trenton Turner 1 0 2-4 4, Toby Smathers 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 18 2 13-21 55. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: Scherer.