Basketball Recap: Riley Hoover and Kristin Szymusiak Secure Win for Blacklick Valley

After having lost a blowout in their previous game against Richland, Blacklick Valley was happy to have turned things around on Saturday. They managed a 49-44 victory over the Windber Ramblers. Given the Vikings' advantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 161st, while the Ramblers are ranked 355th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Blacklick Valley was led to victory by Kristin Szymusiak and Riley Hoover. Szymusiak posted 13 points in addition to eight assists and seven boards, while Hoover went 6 of 8 on her way to 17 points. Szymusiak has been hot for a while, having also posted two or more steals the last 34 times she's played.

Despite the loss, Windber still got an impressive performance from Autumn Walz, who went 6 of 12 on her way to 15 points along with six rebounds and three steals. The dominant performance gave Walz a new career-high in points. Rylee Baer was another key player, putting up six points and three steals.

Blacklick Valley's win bumped their record up to 9-1. As for Windber, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 4-5.

Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Blacklick Valley will have some time to savor their victory since their next game is a little ways off: they'll take on Shade at 6:00 p.m. on January 9th. Windber also won't see the court for a while: their next game is against Ferndale at 7:15 p.m. on January 7th.