Basketball Recap: Braden Bennett's Big Game Can't Quite Lead River Valley over Nelsonville-York

River Valley was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their 16th straight loss. They fell 81-72 to the Nelsonville-York Buckeyes. Sadly, that's the second time they've come up short against the Raiders this season, as they also lost their prior matchup 55-50 back in December of 2024.

River Valley's defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Braden Bennett, who went 10 for 21 on his way to 28 points. Austin Richardson was another key player, dropping a double-double on 20 points and ten boards.

Nelsonville-York was led to victory by Briant Call and Alec Thompson. Call went 7 of 9 en route to 19 points along with six assists and six rebounds, while Thompson went 6 for 13 on his way to 20 points and five assists. Thompson is trending in the right direction considering he's improved his point production for three straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Cameron Sullivan, who went 6 of 8 en route to 12 points.

River Valley's loss dropped their record down to 1-17. As for Nelsonville-York, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 10-5 record this season.

River Valley has already played their next contest (against Athens), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Nelsonville-York is taking a road trip to challenge Alexander at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Nelsonville-York is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 58.3 points per game this season.