Miamisburg boys basketball coach Tim Fries had long since shed his jacket, but his sense of humor was still intact.

The Vikings had just battled to a 48-46 overtime win at Hamilton, their first OT game since Jan. 15, 2011, but to Fries it didn’t seem like that much time had passed.

“They all feel like overtime games,” Fries said with a smile after his squad improved to 8-5. “This is what we have been waiting for. This is a young group and they are learning on the fly. They executed and did the right things down the stretch. I was proud of them.”

The Vikings won the tip in the extra frame and held the ball for half the period before Justin Williams was fouled with 2:46 left. Williams made one of two free throws and Adam Giles followed with a pair to give Miamisburg a 47-44 lead with 1:10 left. Hamilton’s Christian Jones – who led all scorers with 18 points – cut the lead to one but Miamisburg got just one more free throw in the OT and Ryan Robinson’s 3-point try as time expired bounced off the rim to give the Vikings their fourth win in six games decided by five or fewer points.

“We had a tough night last night (a loss to rival West Carrollton),” Miamisburg’s Jeremy Randolph said after leading the Vikings with 14 points. “But we talked about persevering and pushing through it. We wanted to get this one and get back on the right track.”

Hamilton opened the second half with a 12-5 run behind seven points from Jones to take a 34-30 lead, but the teams would swap the lead four times over the last eight minutes before Miamisburg tied it on a three-point play by Conner Brown.

“We are right there,” Hamilton coach Tim Robinson said of his 5-8 squad. “I thought we played well in spurts. We had great looks, we just didn’t knock shots down.”

After Brown tied it at 44, he swatted the potential game-winning shot by A’Shon Riggins before Robinson’s deep 3 just rimmed out at the buzzer for the Big Blue.

“We got a great look, it just didn’t fall,” Robinson said. “We had a great opportunity to win the game, we just have to find ways to put things together for a whole game and not just in spurts.”

Behind a balanced scoring attack, Miamisburg was able to squeak out a 25-22 lead at halftime despite turning the ball over 12 times and shooting 11 percent from the free-throw line.