Heading into the holiday break with a win was on the mind on Friday night as Doniphan West and Valley Heights meet up for a Twin Valley League showdown in a battle of Mustangs and it was the Valley Heights girls and Doniphan West galloping into the break with wins. Valley Heights girls earned the 57-43 win, while Doniphan West boys held of a feisty Valley Heights team for the 55-45 victory. 

Valley Heights came running out of the gates with Jo Roepke leading the charge while Doniphan West matched them early as the game was tied 7-7, but a 4-0 run gave Valley the 11-7 lead until Doniphan West ended the first on a 3-0 run to make 11-10. It continued in the second quarter to be the Roepke show for Valley Heights as she posted 10 points in the first and 11 more in the second ot have 21 by halftime and help Valley Heights outscore Doniphan West 25-12 in the second quarter to lead 36-22 at intermission. Coming out of the halftime Doniphan West was able to chip at the lead and ultimately outscore Valley Heights 13-10 in the third quarter but Doniphan lost McKenzie Blevins late in the quarter to a hand injury and the lead establish in the first half proved to be to much for Doniphan West as Valley Heights picked up the 57-43 win. 

With the win Valley Heights moves to 2-3 on the season and 2-1 in TVL action, a Roepke paced the team on the night with 27 points, 21 of which came in the first half. Kayla Smith added 22 points for Valley Heights scoring all 10 of the team’s third quarter points. Both Roepke and Smith earned co-Community National Bank Player's to Bank On honors on KMZA for their performances. 

Doniphan West in the loss was led by Blevins who scored 12 points, while Carlie Taylor chipped in 10 points as Doniphan West heads in the break with a 2-1 record and 1-1 in the TVL. 

In the boys action Doniphan West took the early lead and never gave it up, but Valley Heights never gave up in the game as they were all Doniphan West could handle through the game. Taking advantage of early free throws Doniphan West led 14-9 after the first quarter and 25-21 headed into halftime. At the start of the second half the game started to fully sway the way of Doniphan West as Austin Taylor had an eight point quarter and Doniphan West would lead by double digits in the frame, but Valley Heights answered to trail just by seven going into the fourth. That lead continued to dissipate again for Doniphan West in the fourth getting down to three late in the final minutes but behind free throws down the stretch and Valley Heights losing their big man Anthony Edwards, who had done a great job defensively in the game, as he fouled out, Doniphan West was able to grabbed the win 55-45. 

Cooper Leach led Doniphan West with 14 points, while Taylor finished with 12, Justin Clark notched 11 points and Lane Spiker chipped in nine. Clark was steady throughout the game with two points or more in each quarter and made several heady plays to earn him Community National Bank Player to Bank On honors on KMZA in the win. Doniphan West with the win improved to 4-0 and 2-0 in TVL play. 

Valley Heights heads into the holidays at 1-4 and 1-2 in TVL action after the loss and was led by nine points from Logan Woodyard and eight points by both Edwards and Bryan Yungeberg. 

Each team will hit the court next at home in TVL action after the break on Tuesday, January 5th as Doniphan West will host Centralia and Valley Heights will host Onaga.