Basketball Game Preview: Valmeyer Pirates vs. New Athens Yellow Jackets

Valmeyer is 1-9 against New Athens since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Valmeyer Pirates will venture away from home to challenge the New Athens Yellow Jackets at 7:30 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, both will really light up the scoreboard.

On Friday, Valmeyer needed a bit of extra time to put away Southwestern. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past the Piasa Birds 66-63. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Pirates have posted since December 8, 2023.

Meanwhile, New Athens earned a 68-56 victory over Marissa/Coulterville on Saturday. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Yellow Jackets.

The win got Valmeyer back to even at 2-2. As for New Athens, they have been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 9-4 record this season.

Valmeyer came up short against New Athens when the teams last played back in February, falling 52-47. Can Valmeyer avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.