The Niles JV boys’ basketball team edged St. Joseph Thursday night 47-46.

Rodney Applewhite led the Vikings with 14 points and six rebounds, while Anthony Bice added eight points and seven rebounds. Niles also got 12 points from Cole Clemens.

The Bears packed in their 2-3 zone defense and forced the Vikings to try and beat them from outside.

It worked for a half as Niles scored just 15 points in the first two quarters. But in the second half the Vikings exploded for 32 points to put out the victory.

“Going into the second half we felt like we needed to mix it up defensively to try and dictate the tempo of the game,” Niles coach Josh Bourne said. “We had decent success with that for it seemed like we had opportunites to run the floor offenseively due to our increased energy defensively from our trapping zone.  Cole Clemens really kept us hanging around in the third quarter by getting hot at the right time and banging in three of his four threes. In the fourth quarter it was Anthony Bice and Rodney Applewhite that virtually willed our team to a narrow win.”