Basketball Recap: Valentine falls despite big games from Paige Sprenger and Kinsey Buechle

By Team Reports Feb 5, 2024, 9:32am

Basketball Recap: Valentine vs. Chadron Cardinals

Valentine's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Saturday after their fourth straight loss. The match between them and Chadron wasn't particularly close, with Valentine falling 51-37. Valentine has not had much luck with the Cardinals recently, as the team's come up short the last seven times they've met.

Kinsey Buechle and Paige Sprenger certainly did their best on Saturday to avoid the loss. Buechle almost dropped a double-double on 13 points and nine rebounds, while Sprenger scored 14 points along with six steals. That was a full 35.1% of Valentine's points, marking the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.

Demi Ferguson was her usual excellent self, scoring 16 points along with five assists and two blocks for Chadron. The team also got some help courtesy of Haylee Wild, who scored 12 points.

Valentine dropped their record down to 7-12 with that defeat, which was their seventh straight on the road. Those losses could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 29.0 points per game. As for Chadron, their victory bumped their record up to 12-10.

Valentine will be playing in front of their home fans against the Broncos at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. As for Chadron, they will head out on the road to face off against the Red Raiders at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.