Basketball Recap: Brady Sampson's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Kankakee Valley over River Forest

It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact Kankakee Valley can now relate to. They took a 56-44 hit to the loss column at the hands of the River Forest Ingots on Friday. The Kougars were not able to repeat the success they had when they faced the Ingots earlier this season, when they won 58-46.

Brady Sampson

Steals

03/07/25 vs River Forest	2
02/28/25 vs North Judson-San Pierre	3
02/25/25 vs 21st Century Charter	3

Kankakee Valley lost despite a true team effort on offense. The best among them was Brady Sampson, who shot 67% from the field on his way to 20 points and five boards. He has been hot recently, having also posted two or more steals the last three times he's played. Gavin Joy was another key player, putting up ten points and three blocks.

River Forest's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Ya'Hyness Williams, who posted 11 points along with seven assists and four steals. The dominant performance gave Williams a new career-high in assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Royce Thompson, who had nine points and seven rebounds.

Kankakee Valley has been struggling recently as they've lost four of their last five matchups. That's put a noticeable dent in their 12-12 record this season. The win (which was River Forest's fifth in a row) raised their record to 17-6.

Kankakee Valley does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for River Forest, they have already played their next game, a 67-50 defeat against Hanover Central on the 8th.