The Kankakee Valley Kougars pushed their score all the way to 72 on Thursday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They were the victim of a rough 97-72 defeat at the hands of East Chicago Central. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Tuesday (63), Kankakee Valley still had to take the loss.
Kankakee Valley lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Camden Webster, who scored 18 points. Brady Sampson was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with six rebounds and two steals.
Kankakee Valley's lineup was just a bit different on Thursday as Jaidyn Anderson got a bit more time on the court (30 vs. his season average of 13.6). Anderson made the most of the opportunity, scoring ten points. A few more games like that and he might be seeing even more time going forward.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead East Chicago Central to victory, but perhaps none more so than Yamauree Wallace, who almost dropped a double-double on 21 points and nine rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Wallace has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Jemeil Rich jr, who scored 21 points along with five assists and five rebounds.
Kankakee Valley are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 10-9. Those losses can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 66.3 points per game. As for East Chicago Central, the victory was the tenth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 16-4.
Kankakee Valley won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Calumet New Tech at 7:00 p.m. on February 9th. Kankakee Valley is strutting with some offensive muscle, as they've averaged 59.6 points per game this season. As for East Chicago Central, they will look to defend their home court on Friday against Hammond Bishop Noll at 7:00 p.m.
