Basketball Preview: Juniata Valley Hornets vs. Huntingdon Bearcats
Juniata Valley is 1-9 against the Bearcats since December of 2014 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The Juniata Valley Hornets will be playing at home against the Huntingdon Bearcats at 7:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Juniata Valley has five straight wins, the Bearcats have seven straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Juniata Valley stacked a seventh blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Friday. They breezed by Moshannon Valley on the road to the tune of 70-34. Given Juniata Valley's advantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 310th, while the Black Knights/Damsels are ranked 742nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Juniata Valley's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Charlie Mattas, who scored 24 points along with five rebounds and two steals. Another player making a difference was Ronal Chavez, who scored 16 points.
Meanwhile, it's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 80-50, which was the final score in Huntingdon's tilt against the Panthers on Friday. Huntingdon was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 45-23.
Juniata Valley is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last 11 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 14-4 record this season. As for Huntingdon, they dropped their record down to 6-10 with that defeat, which was their fifth straight on the road.
Juniata Valley strolled past the Bearcats in their previous matchup back in December of 2023 by a score of 73-54. Will Juniata Valley repeat their success, or do the Bearcats have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
