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Late inside effort pushes Crescenta Valley girls’ basketball past Glendale

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GLENDALE — Second place in the Pacific League is all but sewn up for the Crescenta Valley High girls’ basketball team.

That isn’t to say, however, that it was easy.

The visiting Falcons held off a fourth-quarter charge and gritty effort from Glendale before pulling away for a 41-34 victory in league action Friday evening.

The victory not only secures a season sweep for Crescenta Valley, which improved to 17-9 overall and 10-2 in league, but also puts the Falcons two games ahead of Glendale (14-12, 8-4) with two league games remaining.

“We’re both very dynamic teams and that’s what made this game fun,” said Crescenta Valley senior forward Josie Brock, who led her team with 13 points, nine rebounds and two steals. “We got separation because we picked up our defense, which was slacking.”

Glendale had lost at Crescenta Valley, 52-34, on Jan. 15 in the team’s first match-up, but showed much had changed since then when Merina Latu and Claire Yanai (eight points and seven rebounds) drained back-to-back three-pointers to start the fourth quarter.

The buckets erased a 30-24 deficit after three and knotted the game at 30 with 6:56 remaining in the contest.

While Glendale went outside when it fell behind, Crescenta Valley went inside to reestablish itself.

First Brock hit a runner with 6:38 left to give the Falcons back a 32-30 advantage.

A Glendale free throw was answered by a short jumper from Brock off an assist from Michelle Garebedian followed by an up-and-under basket from senior center Alisa Shinn (12 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks) with 3:14 left as the Falcons led, 36-31.

Glendale’s top scorer was Sylvia Vartazarian, who tallied 13 points and 13 rebounds and chipped in her final scoring contribution on an offensive putback at 2:38 that brought Glendale within 36-33.

With Glendale focused on defending the paint, Shinn helped ice the game when she kicked out of a double team to teammate Polin Megerdichian (eight points).

The junior guard buried a three-pointer with 2:08 remaining that put the visitors ahead, 39-33, while sapping the life out of Glendale, which never pulled any closer.

“CV’s inside presence was dominant,” Glendale Coach Tadeh Mardirosian said. “Alisa and Josie did a wonderful job. They ran their offense straight through them and when we collapsed on them they had those guards hit some big threes.”

Crescenta Valley scored six of the game’s first eight points, but Glendale rallied back to within 8-7 after an inside bucket from Vartazarian with nine seconds left.

Shinn, however, matched the shot when she hit a 10-foot jumper at the buzzer thanks to a driving assist from Megerdichian to give the Falcons a 10-7 lead.

“I think sometimes we’re afraid to attack the inside and we settle for threes,” Brock said. “When we go inside and we make our shots, then we’re tough to beat.”

Crescenta Valley led by as many as six points in the second quarter before two free throws from Vartazarian right before halftime brought Glendale within 22-18.

The Falcons pushed their advantage to 29-20 on another kick-out three-pointer from Megerdichian before the Nitros pulled to within 30-24 at the end of three thanks in part to a triple from Latu.

“If you look at the way we played in our first game compared to now, there’s no question we improved,” Mardirosian said. “For us, this showed that on any given day anybody can be beat.”

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