by Todd Robinson
Loveland, Ohio – The Tigers returned to their winning form last Tuesday night in front of their home crowd, topping the Milford Eagles 56-42 for the season sweep of their neighboring rival. The Tigers made it two league wins in a row this week, knocking off defending league champion Kings 41-35 on Friday night.
After dropping four straight games, the Tigers came out of the gate hungry against Milford and jumped to a 17-13 lead after the first quarter. Loveland dropped three treys in opening stanza, including two from senior center Mitch Suder. Behind strong and energetic play, six players were in the scorebook by halftime as the Tigers expanded their lead to 30-21 going into the locker room. Milford slowly work their way back in the game, cutting the deficit to three points midway into the third quarter. but a 9-3 run to close the quarter, including a Jalen Greiser trey as the buzzer went off, gave the Tigers a 45-34 lead. Loveland maintained their double-digit lead nearly the entire fourth quarter, earning their first season sweep of Milford since the 2013 season. Mitch Suder and Jalen Greiser led the Tigers with 15 and 14 points respectively. Drew Kluender had 8 points and freshman Collin Hedgepeth also knocked in 8 and had four assists. The win got the Tigers to 5-4 in the league, tied for second in the Eastern Cincinnati Conference.
Against Kings and in front of the largest and loudest home crowd of the season, the Loveland men’s basketball squad gave the fans what they were looking for, a season sweep against the rival Knights. The team enjoyed a post-game celebration with the boisterous Tiger Nation student section as the victory moved the Tigers into sole possession of second place in the ECC with a 6-4 league record.
It was a back and forth affair throughout the entire defensive oriented game as Loveland held a 8-7 advantage after the first quarter, however Kings rebounded and took a one point lead into the halftime locker room at 21-20. Down 28-27 going into the fourth quarter, the Tigers ran out to 34-32 lead. Kings countered at 35-34 on a trey with four and a half minutes to go in the game – but the Tigers finished the game on a 7-0 run to seal the victory.
It was a solid team win for the Tigers with 10 Tigers making contributions in the box score. Jalen Greiser led the Tigers with 13 points, including three treys. Mitch Robinson had 7 points and 3 steals on the night. Mitch Suder and Collin Hedgepeth both kicked in 6 points. The Tigers have a busy stretch coming up, taking on Northwest, Withrow, and Indian Hill this week.
All photos © 2017 David Miller/Loveland Magazine.
