The 21st Century Charter COUGARS fought the good fight in their overtime contest against the Valparaiso Vikings on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell to the Vikings 68-64. While losing is never fun, 21st Century Charter can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 248th, while Valparaiso is ranked 57th).
When it comes to explaining why 21st Century Charter lost, one person who can't be blamed is Lemetrius "Meachy" Williams. Despite the final result, he dropped a double-double on 17 points and 11 rebounds. Williams is absolutely dominating the rebound category: he's posted at least eight every time he's taken the court this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Ron Mosely, who scored 11 points.
Even though they lost, 21st Century Charter were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with 19 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Valparaiso only pulled down 11 offensive rebounds.
Jack Smiley was his usual excellent self, scoring 35 points along with seven rebounds and six assists for Valparaiso. The game was Smiley's sixth in a row with at least ten points. Alec Platipodis was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on 11 points and ten rebounds.
21st Century Charter now has a losing record at 2-3. As for Valparaiso, the win (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 4-2.
21st Century Charter will head out on the road to face off against Hammond Central at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Hammond Central focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 11 on Tuesday. Valparaiso will be home for the holidays to greet Elkhart at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Elkhart is still on the hunt for that elusive first 'W'.
