OLYMPIC LEAGUE BASKETBALL – Valley Christian Boys let slip potential surprise win in fourth quarter – Cerritos Community News
January 19, 2022
By Loren Kopff • @Lorenkopff on Twitter
The Valley Christian High Boys basketball program has not won an Olympic league title since the 2007-2008 season, and since the league’s current format began for the 2010-2011 season, three schools have won championships in the league. One such school is Village Christian High, which has won three championships in the past 10 seasons.
The Defenders appeared to have a comfortable 10-point lead over Village Christian with 6:25 remaining in last Friday’s contest, but went into an offensive funk and were choked by the Crusaders 46-45. After winning eight straight games, Valley Christian (13-8, 1-3) had lost two straight league games by a total of four points before edging past Camarillo High 69-66 last Saturday. VC also fell to Heritage Christian High 69-50 last Tuesday night.
“You have to win four quarters and we won three and we didn’t win the last quarter,” said VC first-year head coach Tom Lewis. “They came back and that’s why we lost. You have to win all four.”
With a 38:28 lead, the defenders missed five straight shots over a 6:23 period before sophomore Myles Harvey sunk a three to 46:45 by 2.4 seconds. After a time-out, Village Christian threw the ball to senior Nathan Medina and after apparently dribbling for more than two seconds, he launched a desperate three-point attempt that never found the iron.
“You can look at it from so many different dynamics,” Lewis said of the final game of the game. “The clock went off, the umpires… I wasn’t sure what the umpires were wearing [the clock]. There was a lot of confusion. The referees said this and we said that and the referees didn’t give us an opportunity to clarify or start another game.
The first quarter was as close as only a basketball game could get, with nine lead changes and neither team more than two points clear. For the defenders, their two-point lead came with 1.4 seconds to go when Medina hit a three, his first goal of the game.
Defenders kept momentum both offensively and defensively in the second quarter, starting a 6-1 run in the first 4:40 of the second quarter while limiting Village Christian to four shot attempts ahead of Immanuel Taylor’s three-pointer with 2:32 left at halftime made it 18-14. While Valley Christian was six of 17 off the field at halftime, the Crusaders went to eight of 23 and only made consecutive baskets in the final 47.9 seconds.
“I was very proud of the boys; They came out with a lot of energy and a lot of determination,” Lewis said. “I think we have them on our heels. Obviously they had a hard time scoring goals, which is what we needed from them. We kept the score low where we needed it. When all was said and done, we won three quarters and they won one.”
Gradually, Valley Christian extended his lead in the third quarter. At 21-21, senior Micah Sybesma and sophomore Jacob Bayla hit with putbacks, and Bayla added another basket at 5-11 in the third quarter to level it at 27-21. With 63 seconds left in the verse and now two points clear, Harvey hit a three to start an 11-3 run that lasted into the early moments of the fourth quarter.
But then the Crusaders started connecting with more of their shots and leveled the game at 39-39, 3-11 after a Thomas Luczak three-pointer. Two free throws from Bayla gave Village Christian a definitive 1:28 lead with a trifecta from Powell Mousaian. It was the Crusaders’ first lead since leading 10-9 late in the first quarter.
In the fourth quarter alone, Valley Christian was three of nine from the field, six of nine from the free throw line and had two rebounds, while Village Christian missed three of seven from the field and was eight of 13 from the charity streak.
“They returned the ball incredibly well; we need to rebound better,” said Lewis. “They hit their foul shots, we missed some layups and foul shots that we should have made and in the fourth quarter you have to play. At the end of the day when you face yourself [in position] To win the fourth quarter you have to play and they did more than we did.”
Valley Christian finished the game with 15 of 37 shots from the field and 12 of 17 free throws while the Crusaders were 15 of 38 from the field and 13 of 19 from the charity stripe. Medina led the Defenders with a season-low 12 points, but seven of those came off the line. Bayla added eight points while Sybesma contributed with five points and four rebounds.
“They did a great job,” said Lewis. “They ran at him with two guys and physically handled him. They had a good game plan. That shows a lot of respect for Nathan; how much they respect him for it. He’s good enough to obviously deal with it and learn from it and move on.”
Ahead of the game, the Valley Christian girls were aiming for their first 3-0 league start since the 2016-2017 season, and early on it seemed they were going to have a good clash with Village Christian, who had played a league game. But the Crusaders finished the first half on a 10-0 run, beat the hosts 22-9 in the second half and drove to a 47-24 win. Valley Christian, who had won six straight games and also their first two league games of the 2019-2020 season, rallied last Tuesday night to defeat Heritage Christian 53-35 to take their mark to 8-13 overall and 3- 1 in the circuit. The loss was the first since a 68-24 setback to Brea Olinda High on December 27.
“I know their coach pretty well, and I think he needs the first quarter to weigh up what he’s going to do and then he sizes up everyone,” said VC interim first-year head coach Dan Leffler. “I knew they would eventually bring the Heat. So they brought the heat, they squeezed us; They wanted to put pressure on us. We just don’t handle it very well. We’re not experienced enough, we’ve got a few girls who haven’t played enough and we’re one or two ball handlers.”
Village Christian led 11-9 after the first quarter as each team was four of 13 out and had four turnovers. After the Crusaders scored 15 seconds into the second quarter, the next score didn’t come until 5:35 when senior Gillian Doplemore scored with her fourth and final basket of the game. The team would get two more baskets over the next two minutes until Village Christian used the last 2:57 of the half plus the first 3:20 of the second half to end the game with a 14-0 run.
Valley Christian was 11 of 44 from the field and missed all eight free throws as Doplemore’s eight points and 12 rebounds accelerated the team. Seniors Mia Kandalaft and Karon Warren each added five boards as all Defenders’ 10 players had at least one of the team’s 33 rebounds.
“You can take time off to stop the bleeding, but I only have the staff I have,” Leffler said. “They were frustrated and I tried to get them to have a little more team concept. When you see the trap, get rid of it [the ball]. But for us it’s back to the drawing board. We have to keep working on the pressure.”
Both Valley Christian teams will host Maranatha High tonight for the second round of league action. Also, the boys will be hosting La Serna High on Saturday, while the girls will be attending Pacifica Christian High on Tuesday.
“It couldn’t be easier, especially when it comes to our game plan with four home games in a row,” said Leffler. “You try to win as many of these at home as you can before heading out [San Fernando] Canyon. Yes, we need to be more careful with the ball and then play with a little more confidence.”
“There won’t be any free nights from here on out,” said Lewis. “You have to grind it out and find gains. But we only have 20 days or 18 days, whatever. We need to find wins, compete and finish games.”
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