By Thomas Grant Jr.

The 2023 season has provided its share of ups and downs for Spring Valley girls basketball.

This was especially true this past week when it continued its season-long trend of following victories with defeats.

It started Dec. 4 with a 50-49 loss at Lexington to drop to 3-3 on the season.

Zie’l Ratchford sparked a second-half comeback from 14 points down with a game-high 18 points.

Mariana Moody also scored in double digits with 14 points, including 8-10 on free throws.
Spring Valley led 48-44 when Lexington scored five unanswered points. Jaleya Lytes, who led the Lady Wildcats with 14 points, converted a 3-point play and Kailen Parks had a fastbreak layup. After Ratchford tied the game with 1-2 free throws, freshman Braidi Goodrich was fouled with 22.1 seconds left. The daughter of Lexington head coach Molly Goodrich missed the first free throw, then made the second for the one-point lead.

Spring Valley set up a play following the timeout, but Ratchford missed the layup and Lexington grabbed
the rebound in the final seconds.

“It comes down to us just executing and being disciplined and right now, we’re just very undisciplined
and that’s my responsibility,” Spring Valley head coach Megan Assey said. “I’ve got to go back at practice
and hold them accountable as far as the discipline aspect is concerned. “I feel like we turned the ball over way too much tonight, especially in the halfcourt. This halfcourt offense, not really against a lot of pressure in that regard. But we tried to tell them coming over here. Coach Goodrich is a good coach. These girls have high IQ. They play hard and they want to beat us. So, we just didn’t do our job tonight.”

Spring Valley rebounded two nights later with a 69-36 rout of White Knoll. On Friday, the Lady Vikings played host to Westwood and entered the fourth quarter with a 9-point lead.

The Lady Redhawks outscored Spring Valley 21-11 in the fourth quarter to get the 62-61 victory. Si’’naya Curry had 22 points, Makiah Thompson finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds and Aneya Britt scored 11 points for Westwood.

Spring Valley looked to get back over .500 Tuesday at Ridge View.

The same is true for the boys team which followed an 82-36 loss at top-ranked Lexington with a 53-36 win over White Knoll to improve to 3-3.