CINCINNATI — Back-to-back Mid Ohio Athletic Conference championships, back-to-back Division IV district titles, and back-to-back trips to the Sweet 16, it was an unprecedented season for the River Valley boys basketball team.
Since the school district started in 1962-63, no boys squad at RV had ever accomplished any of those back-to-back milestones. Unfortunately for the Vikings, there will be no more added to the list in 2025-26.
Their season came to an end after Dayton Northridge’s furious second-half comeback, losing in the D-IV regional semifinals 75-68 in Xavier’s Cintas Center.
“We had a great season, and I think people counted them out this year and didn’t think we would be that good after last year,” RV coach Rodney Brown said. “To be able to come back to the regionals again is impressive on its own. These seniors have had so much success. It was an incredible year. They competed to the end.”
For a half, it looked like River Valley, ranked 18th in the MaxPreps D-IV state rankings, was going to pull off the upset on the No. 5 team. River Valley bolted out to leads of 9-2 and 15-5 before ending the first quarter with a 23-13 edge.
“We might have played the best we’ve played all year in the first quarter and first half,” Brown said.
They pushed the lead to 37-22 with 3:45 left in the half and was up 42-28 at halftime thanks to 22 points on 8-for-13 shooting from Chase Smith, plus 10 more points from Carter Myers and nine from Eli Snyder. Besides shooting 47 percent on 3-pointers, RV controlled the boards 23-16 with nine offensive rebounds. They held the Polar Bears to 39 percent shooting at the other end.
Northridge (25-1) extended its defense in the half-court with physical perimeter play in the second half, and the shots that were falling in the first half for the Vikings (20-6) didn’t come as easy. Northridge continued to cut into the RV lead from the start of the third quarter. Then in the final two minutes of the period, the Polar Bears went on a 12-0 run to take a 55-52 lead into the fourth quarter.
“That third quarter we kind of folded under the pressure,” Brown said. “That’s that they do. They turn you over and they score. They did it the other night and in almost every film we watched. We just kind of panicked under the pressure. It’s very, very hard to replicate that pressure in practice. We don’t have guys like that.”
The Vikings shot 27 percent from the field in the quarter as they committed 13 turnovers in the second half. For the game, the Polar Bears outscored RV 25-13 off turnovers and 52-16 in the paint. RV didn’t lead again but did get to within 63-62 with 3:10 to go and 67-65 with 1:43 left.
“We just kind of lost our composure. We just had a bad stretch in there. It was just really bad for us,” Brown said.
Myers finished with 27 points and five rebounds, while Smith had 25 points with six 3-pointers and six rebounds, and Snyder added 15 points. Carter Logan pulled down six rebounds and led with four assists, and Ellis McFarland ended with a team-high eight rebounds to go with three steals, while Kolton Lang had six rebounds. Everyone had at least two assists as they ended with 18 as a team.
Brown credited his seniors in Snyder, Smith, Lang, Logan, Chris Davis, Zaden Vandall and De’Andre Smith for leading the program to more milestones.
“The goal is this is who we are and keep coming back here and making it to regionals and winning league titles. That’s everyone’s goal. Hopefully we can continue to do that. We’ve got a guy coming back that’s going to make it a little easier for us. Carter is pretty special,” Brown said.
Keonte Smith paced Northridge with 26 points and nine rebounds as Deonte Smith had 17 points, Dorryen Davis 11 points and D’Marrinate Crane 10 points.
The Polar Bears will play No. 2 Cincinnati Wyoming (23-3) March 14 at 1 p.m. back in the Cintas Center. Wyoming beat No. 3 Kettering Alter 68-52 in the first game Thursday.
rmccurdy@usatodayco.com
419-610-0998
X @McMotorsport
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: River Valley finishes its boys basketball season with milestones
Reporting by Rob McCurdy, Marion Star / Marion Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
