VALLEY — The Valley girls basketball team improved to 4-1 in area play after a 61-36 victory over Beauregard on Thursday night. The Rams can force a coin flip to host the area tournament with a win at Brewbaker Tech next Tuesday.

“That’s what we want,” Valley girls head basketball coach George Grimes said. “All we want is a chance.”

Brewbaker visited Valley on Jan. 15 and defeated the Rams 59-33. 

“It’s a new game,” Grimes said of the next matchup with Brewbaker. “I don’t think the score of the game really showed the results of how the game was played. In the second and third quarter, we found a way to hang on, and we actually cut the lead to 10 going into the fourth quarter. We just got tired. This will be our second time playing them, I’ve got a feeling that it may be a little different. We just hope to make it a game through the fourth quarter.”

Valley got an opportunity to rest leading scorers Arteria Florence and Ana Magby for a majority of the fourth quarter on Thursday night. Florence finished with 17 while Magby added 12 in the effort. Kwame Cofield also finished in double digits, scoring 11 points on the night. All eight Rams that played in the game scored, including Jayla Lancaster, Jasmine Frazier, Emerald Floyd, Valencia Bennett and Amiya Hatchett also got on the board for Valley in the win.

“It was a good job by all of them,” Grimes said. “I was able to get two of my starters rested, I had one out due to injury. It doesn’t get any easier because we play tomorrow night. On back-to-back nights you try to get rest when you can.”

Valley returns to home against Callaway on Friday night for the last home game of the regular season.