Lakeland is 1-9 against Mid Valley since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Lakeland Chiefs will head out on the road to face off against the Mid Valley Spartans at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully Lakeland focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 14 on Thursday.
After a string of three wins, Lakeland's good fortune finally ran out. They received a tough blow as they fell 65-47 to Holy Cross. While losing is never fun, Lakeland can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 413th, while Holy Cross is ranked 66th).
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Nathan Hunt, who scored 14 points along with five assists and five rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points he has scored all season. Chase Rosenkrans was another key contributor, scoring 16 points.
Lakeland struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only four offensive rebounds. That's the fewest offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, the matchup between Mid Valley and Riverside on Monday hardly resembled the 26-25 effort from their previous meeting. Mid Valley skirted past Riverside 60-57. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory Mid Valley has posted yet this season.
Demaja Dunston was his usual excellent self, scoring 23 points along with seven assists and six steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Kaleik Cook, who scored eight points along with ten rebounds.
Lakeland now has a losing record at 5-6. As for Mid Valley, the win makes it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 8-5.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Lakeland have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 28.7 rebounds per game. It's a different story for Mid Valley, though, as they've been averaging only 23.2 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Lakeland came up short against Mid Valley when the teams last played back in December of 2023, falling 52-39. Can Lakeland avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
