VALLEY — The matchup was neck-and-neck until Valley junior high point guard Jamarious Martin heaved up a prayer from halfcourt at the first quarter buzzer. As the shot swished through the net to give the Rams an 8-6 lead heading into the second quarter, Valley never looked back in the 36-22 victory.

“For the most part, I was satisfied with everyone’s performance,” Valley junior high boys basketball coach Ronnie Hall said. “We did everything that we set out to do. No. 1, we beat Lanett. That’s always our goal. As far as the game went, we didn’t really know much about Lanett’s basketball team so we stuck with the game plan that we’ve had for the last four games. Defensively, we ran a zone, which was very successful because they didn’t score many points tonight on us. We have a number of plays on offense that attacks the kind of defense that they ran, and we were successful.”

Onaje Jackson led the Rams in scoring with eight points, while Ian Crim-Davis finished with six points. Martin wowed the crowd with his ball handling and no-look pass attempts.

“He’ll be one of the players that I recommend to call up at the end of the year,” Hall said of Martin. “Him, Crim-Davis and a couple of other players to call up. You may see them at the conclusion of our season helping out with the high school.”

Valley has at least two games remaining this season against LaFayette and Opelika, with a third pending at Lanett to end the year within the next two weeks.

The team is currently 5-4, suffering two losses by two points.

“The season is going about how I expected,” Hall said. “As far as records go, it’s a bit of a dropoff of what we had last year, but as far as my expectations for the season goes, we’re doing what I expect us to do.”