CALEDONIA — Thursday night the River Valley Vikings were able to tame the Galion Tigers by a final score of 89-67. The Vikings used a hot start to roll to a Mid Ohio Athletic Conference victory.
The Vikings enjoyed a balanced scoring effort against the Tigers as Carson Myers had 15 points followed by Chase Ebert and Karson Lang, who each scored 14 points. Carson Smith and Blake Mosher added 12 points each. Brock Mosher added 10 points.
“River Valley is a really good team and I think that’s the most points anyone has scored on them this year,” Galion head coach Ryan Stover said. “Now do we need to play better defense? Absolutely. Our offense is there the last couple games, now we just have to figure out defense.”
River Valley got off to a quick start and led Galion 28-10 after the first eight minutes of play. The junior Myers scored nine points in the first quarter to pace the offense for the Vikings.
Galion was able to get going offensively in the second quarter, but would still trail the hot-shooting Vikings 54-31 at halftime. River Valley had three players in double figures at halftime. Myers had 12 points, while Smith and Lang each contributed 10 points.
Senior Rece Payne paced Galion with 10 points during the first 16 minutes.
“River Valley does a really nice job and they have a lot of shooters. I thought we had the same ability. Once we figured out we could run with them we were okay,” Stover said.
After three quarters River Valley was able to build a 74-44 advantage over Galion. The Vikings put together a great offensive performance throughout the game.
Despite the high scoring affair, the two teams combined for just three made three-pointers with two coming from Galion.
This game came as a unique matchup for Stover who spent several years as an assistant coach with River Valley.
“I’ve been with Coach (Rodney) Brown for a long time. I wish I could have gotten one against him. He is a really good coach. It’s really cool to go against someone you coached with,” Stover explained.
On the night, Payne finished with 23 points to lead the Tigers and his senior teammate Hudson Miller contributed 14 points of his own. Sophomore Cooper Kent added nine points.
Senior Jaxson Oswald had six points and freshman Quinn Miller chipped in with five points. Sophomores Coen Fuson and Steven Glew each scored four points.
Galion (2-7, 1-5 MOAC) will be back in action on Thursday, Jan. 6 when they travel to Pleasant (2-6, 2-3 MOAC) to take on the Spartans. The Tigers return home on Saturday, Jan. 8 to face Mount Gilead.
River Valley (6-3, 5-1 MOAC) will look to add a non-conference win over Worthington Christian at home on Tuesday, Jan. 4.
