Doniphan West and Valley Heights split their games on Friday night in Highland for the Battle of the Mustangs. The Doniphan West girls got the 38-37 home upset over Valley Heights, who were ranked number nine in the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association poll in Class 2A. The Valley Heights boys’ team avenged the girls’ loss with a 60-40 win.

Doniphan West got out to a quick start and kept Valley Heights at arm’s length throughout the contest. D-West got up to a 23-15 lead at the half with Avery Weathersbee scoring six points in the first quarter.

They kept it up in the second half forcing a bunch of turnovers in their press but had some struggles scoring off said turnovers. As a result, Valley Heights eventually was able to wear down Doniphan West and get close.

Maggie Toerber and Ella Swearingen for Valley Heights scored back-to-back buckets with less than a minute left to get their deficit down to one. However, they weren’t able to make their three-pointer at the buzzer and Doniphan West was able to escape.

Weathersbee led all scorers with 12 points and is the “Player to Bank On” brought to you by Farmers State Bank. Kyra Johnson scored 11 points as well for D-West.

Toerber led Valley Heights off the bench with 11 points. Delana Murk had seven points and Kaylee Skalla and Swearingen both had six.

Although the final score in the boys’ game was lobsided, the game was full of excitement. At points, it felt like a three-point shooting contest. This is mainly because Doniphan West had 12 three-point makes and Valley Heights made eight.

Both teams made seven apiece in the first half Cooper Eberly of Doniphan West making three of them. In the third quarter, though, Doniphan West went cold. Kolter Peterson didn’t get the memo, however, as he scored all 12 of the team’s points with all coming on deep balls. D-West would be limited to just five points in the fourth quarter as Valley Heights was able to run away with it.

Royce Ekstrum and Jayden DeWalt led the team with 13 points each. DeWalt made some important defensive plays down the stretch making him the “Player to Bank On” brought to you by Farmers State Bank. Logan Gray added on 12 points and Caden Parker finished with nine.

Peterson led Doniphan West with 16 points with Eberly finished with ten. D-West had just one two-point field goal all game with it coming in the fourth quarter from Michael Albers.