Basketball Recap: Jefferson Area Takes a Loss

After flying high against Lakeside last Saturday, Jefferson Area came back down to earth. The Jefferson Area Falcons fell 60-53 to the Madison Blue Streaks on Wednesday. While losing is never fun, the Falcons can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 478th, while the Blue Streaks are ranked 230th).

Despite the loss, Jefferson Area still got an impressive performance from Leah Valenti, who went 5 for 8 en route to 14 points and six rebounds. The dominant performance gave Valenti a new career-high in points. Another player making a difference was Danielle Furman, who almost dropped a double-double on ten points and nine boards.

Even though they lost, Jefferson Area smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 15 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive rebounds in 13 consecutive games dating back to last season.

Jefferson Area's loss dropped their record down to 5-7. As for Madison, they pushed their record up to 12-3 with the win, which was their third straight at home.

Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Jefferson Area has already played their next match (against Edgewood), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Madison will face off against Mayfield at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Madison knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past four contests -- so hopefully Mayfield likes a good challenge.