Basketball Recap: Cedar Valley Drops Highest Score of Season Against Salem Hills

Aviators

Team Score (Highest)

02/14/25 vs Salem Hills	86
01/07/25 @ Mountain Ridge	72
12/30/24 vs Tunstall	70
11/19/24 vs West Jordan	70
12/28/24 vs Louisburg	69

Winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Cedar Valley). They walked away with an 86-73 win over the Salem Hills Skyhawks on Friday. For the Aviators, this counts as revenge for the 78-73 victory the Skyhawks walked away with the last time they faced one another back in February of 2024.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Cedar Valley to victory, but perhaps none more so than Owen Bawden, who almost dropped a double-double with 24 points and nine rebounds. Bawden is becoming a predictor of Cedar Valley's success: when he posts at least 15 points the team is 5-1 (and 3-14 when he doesn't). The team also got some help courtesy of James Milligan, who went 6-for-10 en route to 16 points and four steals.

Cedar Valley smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive boards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Salem Hills only pulled down four offensive rebounds.

When it comes to explaining why Salem Hills lost, don't look at Jacoby Gustin. Despite the final result, he went 16-for-20 to rack up 34 points. The dominant performance also gave Gustin a new career-high in three-point shooting accuracy (50%). Grant Hardy was another key player, going 6-for-8 on his way to 16 points and six assists.

Cedar Valley's win bumped their record up to 8-15. As for Salem Hills, their defeat was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 8-15.

As of now, neither Cedar Valley nor Salem Hills have any future games scheduled.