HOUDINI LIKE...Dan Hickman and the Miami East Vikings put on a magical performance in the district finals at UD Arena.

By Bob Moore
District Champs! For the 5th time under the guidance of Allen Mack the Miami East Vikings boys basketball team will play in the sweet 16! The Vikings beat the perennial district qualifier the North College Hill (NCH) Trojans in convincing fashion at the University Of Dayton Arena, 65–36.

“First and foremost, I just want to say how proud I am of our guys. Their intensity and effort was just tremendous tonight. This was a difficult team to hold below 50, let along 40 our guys just stepped with a great defensive effort and that set the tone” commented Mack in his post game comments.

And set the tone they did. It was questioned on how Miami East would match up with a very athletic and quick squad from the Cincy suburbs. East’s 1-2-2 zone stymied the Trojan offense the first minute into the game as the Vikings contested every pass. The Trojans ended up not even attempting a shot and turned the ball over. The question was answered quickly that East was going to handle their business and defense in the same fashion they had for the previous 22 games. The East defense caused havoc the entire first half and NCH committed 11 turnovers.

The Vikings ran their motion offense efficiently and Hickman started the scoring for the Vikings with a 3 off the left wing. Hickman scored the next bucket with a deuce and had his first of 6 assists on the night with a dish to Aaron Mitchell. The boys from Casstown started the game with a 7-0 run and bolted out to a 14–4 lead after the first quarter.

Hickman began the second quarter with a sweet behind the back pass for pretty reversed layup by Tyler Beard. East scored only 3 more points and that was due in part on the glass work of Logan Carey. Carey crashed the offensive boards and ended up with 5 offensive rebounds in the first half. Carey converted a free throw after getting fouled from a Trojan player to prevent a bucket. He scored their final 2 points of the quarter with nice jumper running off the flex offense. The good news is that NCH only outscored the Viking by one point as the Trojans could not get anything to fall inside the paint. East led at the half 19–10.

The beginning of the second half was played even through the first 4 minutes as East maintained a 10 point margin, 32–22.

A key for Allen Mack during the week of practice was for the team to finish strong in the second half. “We had to finish stronger in the second half then what we have done the last several games. Twin Valley South and Waynesville really responded with big 3rd quarters against us” noted Mack.

The Vikings executed that plan to perfection over the next 9 minutes of the game.

Tyler Dunivan sparked an 11–2 run when he sealed off his defender and scored on the block on an out of bounds play. Dunivan scored his second consecutive bucket when he snuck behind the Trojan extended defense and Hickman found him with a long pass.

After NCH called timeout with 2:06 left in the quarter, Aaron Mitchell greeted them with a blocked shot. Carey drained a 3 ball off the half court set for the Vikings, Dunivan found beard open for 2 with a minute left and Hickman ran the last seconds off the third quarter clock and dished one of his patented no-look passes to Evan Wolf on the right block.

The barrage continued in the 4th when Kyle Karadak drained a 3 at the 6:42 mark. The game got a little rough and the Trojans scrambled for the ball and tried to create turnovers by stepping up their defense. East hung tough and kept their composure by sinking their free throws and making good decisions with the basketball.

Dunivan completed his 4th assist of the night as he found Carey open for 2 as he was fouled. Carey completed the old fashioned 3 point play and when Karadak sank both of his free throws with 5:14 left in the quarter; East completed their 9 minute run and outscored the Trojans 22 to 6.

NCH scored 4 points to narrow the gap to 54 – 32, but when Hickman nailed two free throws and Mitchell scored on a jumper to gain the 4 points back from the Trojans, they knew that the fight was over. East played their bench the last minute of the game and landed a surprising 29 point margin of victory over the North College Hill Trojans, 65–36.

East ended the game shooting 53.7% from the field and went a scintillating 14 for 19 in the second half for 73.7%.

Logan Carey had a great game leading the team with 14 points and ended with a double/double pulling down 10 rebounds. Hickman finished the game with 13 points and lead the team with 6 assists. Kyle Karadak finished with 10 points and shot 3 for 4 from the field and 3 for 4 from the charity stripe. Dunivan had an overall solid game with 8 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

As Allen Mack cut the last string off the net for the Viking faithful, the Viking student section started the “Mack is Back” chant. Miami East is indeed back and back in familiar territory as Miami East will head to Wilmington College to take on the Anna Rockets in the Regional Semi-finals (Wednesday 6:15 at Wilmington COLLEGE).

“I was really proud of our guys on how the stepped and played in the District. We know we have a real tough ball game at the regional and that will be a tough regional for sure with the four teams that are there. We’re looking forward to it.”

Miami East is the first team to land a District Championship in the Cross County Conference since Franklin Monroe in 2002.

Score by quarters
North College Hill…4…10…24…36
Miami East………..14…19…43…65

North College Hill
Sevilla – 5
C. Lowe – 7
J. Lowe – 3
Dartis – 4
Grace – 11
Morton – 2
Pruitt – 4
Total – 36
(FG % 37.5 (14-40) (FT% 55.6 (5-9)

Miami East
Hickman – 13 (6 assists)
Karadak – 10
Carey – 14 (10 rebounds)
Mitchell – 8
Dunivan – 8
Wolf – 2
Denlinger – 2
Beard – 6
L. Hershberger – 2
(FG% 53.7 (22-41) (FT% 73.9 (17-23)

Rebounds
Miami East 24
NCH 24

Turnovers
Miami East 12
NCH 19

3 Point Goals
Miami East – 4 (Hickman 2, Karadak, Carey)
NCH – 1 (C. Lowe)