VALLEY — It was a dogfight between the girls of Valley and Beulah High School on Monday night.

The Rams ended up coming out on top 42-35 after the physical matchup that included many battles for loose balls, as well as a fair share of turnovers.

“If we would’ve cut down on turnovers, we would’ve really been in the game,” Beulah girls head basketball coach Sabrina Milligan said. “We were in the game, [down] seven points, we had to have [about] 30 turnovers. Some of them were just unforced turnovers. 

We sped up a little bit, that’s what they [Valley] do, they rush you. They sped us up a little bit, but when we did fine when we slowed down, we broke their press.”

Beulah senior Kensley Taylor led the Bobcats in scoring by pouring in 18 points in the effort. 

Taylor served as Beulah’s primary ball handler on many possessions, and Valley responded by trapping her, forcing other Beulah players to score.

“If I can get someone else to join in double digits, we might win some of these games,” Milligan said. “If I can get my bigs to board a little bit, I thought we got beat on the boards a lot. 

They’re not really boxing out, they’re just standing beside each other.”

Valley’s suffocating defense, and aggressiveness to take the ball to the rack, at least drawing fouls on several possessions, helped the Rams to a home victory in front of a packed gym.

Beluah returns to the court tonight at Tallassee. Valley plays host to Handley tonight at 6:30 p.m.