Boys’ Basketball

The Valley Regional boys’ basketball squad dropped both contests last week by losing to Old Lyme and Westbrook. The Warriors are now 5-9 on the season and still need three wins to make states.

On Jan. 25, the Warriors hosted Old Lyme (8-4) and lost 68-48. Valley fell behind 22-13 to end the first quarter, but fought back in the second to make it a 33-32 game at the half. In the third quarter, Old Lyme broke it open with a 20-6 advantage and Valley couldn’t recover. Senior co-captain Kelvin Peterson nailed five three-pointers and had a team-high 19 points, Raejon Gaines scored 11 and collected eight rebounds, Nash Eppard pitched in 11 points and six boards, and Garrett Hines finished with six assists in the loss.

On Jan. 27, the Warriors traveled to Westbrook (9-3), where they came up short 71-53. Once again, Valley fought hard in the first half as it went into the break tied at 26. The Warriors kept within striking distance and were only down 47-41 in the second half, but in the fourth quarter, the Knights pulled away as they doubled Valley’s output 24-12 to take the contest. Eppard led the way with a double-double of 24 points and 15 rebounds, Jordan Moran scored 14, and Gaines had six points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Gymnastics

Valley hosted a meet on Jan. 28 and the Warriors scored 123.55 points, marking an improvement of 2.10 points from their previous competition. The other schools involved were Haddam-Killingworth/Coginchaug/Hale-Ray, which scored 137.35, along with Hand (136.3) and Mercy (130).

The individual scorers for Valley were senior Melanie Lee (vault, 8.2; bars, 7.4; beam, 7.5; floor, 7.3); junior Cassidy Kehlenbach (vault, 8.2; bars, 8.4; beam, 7.6); junior Liza Miezejeski (bars, 7.2; beam, 6.0; floor, 7.45); freshman Corinne Fowler (vault, 7.7; bars, 8.0; beam, 6.8; floor, 8.0); sophomore Emily Brucker (vault, 8.0; beam, 6.9; floor, 7.65); freshman Lily O’Neil (vault, 8.15; bars, 6.5; beam, 7.2; floor, 7.5); and freshman Mikayla Bruton (vault, 8.0; bars, 6.7; 7.2; floor, 7.65)