Valencia Delivers a Strong Message

VALENCIA —  After taking its lumps for the first two years of varsity competition, Valencia High could be a major player in the Foothill League boys’ basketball race this season.

The Vikings showed that Friday night by defeating previously unbeaten L.A. Baptist, 87-62, in the championship game of the Valencia tournament.

Valencia (7-2) led, 60-52, at the end of the third quarter before blowing the game open with a 20-4 run in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter.

Fabian Leon, a 6-foot-6 junior transfer from Canyon, capped the Viking blitz with a right-handed dunk over an L.A. Baptist defender with two minutes remaining, and then ran past the Valencia and L.A. Baptist benches pumping his fist.

“I had to take it,” Leon said of the dunk, which came on a three-on-one fastbreak. “What I did afterward was out of excitement. I didn’t mean anything.”

The L.A. Baptist bench, including Coach Bob Chevalier, appeared to take offense at Leon’s antics, but Valencia Coach Gary Spindt wasn’t apologizing.

“These kids played their hearts out for 32 minutes,” he said. “And I’m very proud of them. We weren’t smack for the first two seasons and no one took it easy on us. We were 1-21 our first season and 5-19 last year, and no one gave us a lot of respect.

“Even tonight, everyone expected L.A. Baptist to run us off the court, but we hung in there and we came back.”

The Knights (8-1) led, 22-13, at the end of the first quarter after outscoring Valencia, 15-2, in the final four minutes. But the Vikings came back to take a 36-33 lead at halftime.

L.A. Baptist took a 39-38 lead on a basket by Jermaine Sweet with 6:25 left in the third quarter, but Valencia never trailed after Leon hit a couple of short jump shots from the lane.

“Coach gave us a good pep talk at halftime,” said Leon, who had 19 points, as did sophomore Eskias McDaniels.

“He didn’t yell at us, but he just told us that this tournament was ours. It’s our own.”

Jerrohn Jordan added 13 points and tournament most valuable player Jason Richardson had 12 for the Vikings.

Aaron Davis scored 25 points and Sweet added 11 for L.A. Baptist.

Santa Paula 59, Crespi 47--Josh Jimenez scored eight consecutive points for the Cardinals during a 1:48 stretch of the fourth quarter to start Santa Paula on a 14-5 run in the third-place game.

After the run, Santa Paula had a 51-40 lead with 1:29 to play.

Jimenez, an all-tournament selection, made four free throws in the final 65 seconds to give him 18 points--12 in the fourth quarter. He made three of four shots and all six of his free throws in the fourth quarter.

Willie Zavala had 16 points and Anthony Hernandez added 15 for the Cardinals (3-5), whose starters scored all their points.

Ryan Hill had 12 points and Joe Valone added 10 for Crespi (3-4).

Santa Paula held the Celts to eight field goals in the second half.

Calabasas 87, Fillmore 53--Ryan Coleman scored a career-high 44 points for the Coyotes in the 13th-place game.

Coleman hit 14 of 19 shots and had 20 points at halftime for Calabasas (8-3).