VAQUERO TOURNAMENT : Canyons Topples Glendale, Advances to Title Game

Glendale College, which has been making a habit of winning its own tournament, will be watching rather than participating during tonight’s final, thanks to the College of the Canyons.

The Cougars, despite a rash of turnovers, led throughout and won easily to eliminate the defending champions, 83-75, Friday night in the semifinal game of the Vaquero tournament.

Glendale (6-6) had won the tournament three of the past four years.

Canyons (6-5), which will play L. A. City for the championship tonight at 7, survived 29 turnovers and got a monster game from center Reggie Bell, who scored 19 points and had 18 rebounds.

Four Cougar players scored 12 points each--Nick Sanderson, David Langley, Jeff Dorst and Marquis Wilborn.

Glendale was led by sophomore forward Kelly Crosby, who scored 17 points before fouling out with 2 minutes 21 seconds to play.

Enoch Mack added 15 points for Glendale.

Glendale fell behind, 9-0, to start the game, rallied behind the shooting of Crosby, who scored nine of the Vaqueros’ first 14 points and had 13 points in the first half.

Canyons spread the points around in the first half (four players had eight points at halftime) and led the entire way, settling for a 43-38 advantage at intermission.

In another game:

El Camino 72, Valley 62--Valley led by six points with five minutes to play, but then collapsed down the stretch and was eliminated from the tournament.

El Camino (11-5), getting eight points from forward Keishaun Darthard, went on a 14-0 run and took a commanding 68-60 lead with less than two minutes to play. Darthard led all scorers with 26 points, including 10 in the last five minutes.

Center Art Kirksey scored Valley’s only basket in the final five minutes. Valley Coach Jim Stephens took part of the blame for his team’s collapse.

“I made a mistake. I put a couple of players in the game, but they couldn’t get open for their shots,” Stephens said.

“El Camino is a veteran team. They just took us out of our game. They knew where we were going.”

Valley (7-5) trailed by as many as nine points in the first half but outscored El Camino, 12-3, in the final four minutes to tie the score, 35-35, at intermission.

Sophomore guard Rick Garrick led Valley’s second-half charge, scoring 13 of his team-leading 22 points on an assortment of twisting drives and outside jump shots.

Garrick didn’t get much help. Guard Tory Stephens, who had 10 points at halftime, missed all eight of his second-half shots.

Valley converted just 27% of its field-goal attempts in the second half.