The Valparaiso Vikings entered their tilt with the La Porte Slicers with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. Valparaiso slipped by the Slicers 62-61 on Thursday. 62 seems to be a good number for Valparaiso as the squad scooped up a win with the same number of points in their previous game.
Jack Smiley continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 31 points along with eight rebounds. He is trending in the right direction, as he's improved his point production for three games straight. The team also got some help courtesy of Alec Platipodis, who scored ten points along with six rebounds.
Despite the loss, La Porte still got an impressive performance from Rylan Kieszkowski, who scored 22 points along with seven rebounds. Kieszkowski is on a roll when it comes to points, as he's now scored 15 or more in the last three games he's played. Dylan Salisbury was another key contributor, scoring 11 points.
Valparaiso pushed their record up to 15-4 with that victory, which was their ninth straight at home. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 64.8 points per game. As for La Porte, they are on a five-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 8-9.
Valparaiso will stay at home for another game and welcome the Brickies at 7:00 p.m. on February 6th. Hobart will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Indiana Rankings (they are ranked 285th, while the Vikings are ranked 26th). As for La Porte, they will head out on the road to square off against the Kougars at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Kankakee Valley is coming into the match hot, having won their last five games.
