If Valley was feeling good fresh off their 76-48 takedown of Cameron last Thursday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. The Valley Lumberjacks lost to the Clay-Battelle Cee-Bees on the road by a 73-59 margin on Friday. The result was an unpleasant reminder to the Lumberjacks of the 68-42 defeat they experienced in the pair's previous head-to-head fixture back in January of 2024.
| 01/31/25 vs Clay-Battelle | 10 |
| 01/30/24 @ Cameron | 9 |
| 12/08/23 @ Paden City | 9 |
| 02/14/24 vs Frontier | 8 |
| 02/19/24 @ Beallsville | 8 |
When it comes to explaining why Valley lost, don't look at Gavin Derby. Despite the final result, he dropped a double-double on 32 points and ten rebounds. The dominant performance gave Derby a new career-high in boards. Another player making a difference was Trevor Stackpole, who posted 11 points in addition to six assists and three steals.
Even though they lost, Valley was working as a unit and finished the game with ten assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Clay-Battelle's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Preston Luzader led the charge by dropping a double-double on 19 points and 21 rebounds. Luzader has been hot for a while, having posted 19 or more points the last nine times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Braden Ponceroff, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 11 boards.
Valley moved to 7-5 with that loss, which also ended their six-game winning streak. As for Clay-Battelle, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 8-4 record this season.
Valley didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, a 68-60 win against Wood County Christian on the 4th. Clay-Battelle has also already played their next game, a 52-48 victory against Tygarts Valley on the 1st.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
