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Crescenta Valley girls’ basketball stays perfect in league

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LA CRESCENTA — Life on the road has been marvelous for the Crescenta Valley High girls’ basketball team in the Pacific League.

The Falcons posted six straight road victories to grab hold of first place in league.

Crescenta Valley looked to begin a similar streak when it hosted its first home league game Friday. It got another favorable result.

Crescenta Valley received 19 points from Sarah Perez to post a 49-43 win against rival Arcadia to remain undefeated at the halfway mark in league action.

“We’ve done well on the road, so we wanted to finally come home and protect our court,” said Perez, a senior forward who collected 10 second-half points. “I think we came out early and had the momentum and then Arcadia came back late in the game. Then we closed it out.

“Most of our league games have been nailbiters. This one wasn’t any different. So, we want to keep that momentum going into the second half of league.”

Crescenta Valley (16-4, 7-0 in league) began a seven-game league homestand Friday and is looking to win a second straight league championship. The Falcons, ranked 12th in CIF Southern Section Division II-AA, held a 10-point lead midway through the third quarter before holding off a late surge by the Apaches (8-9, 2-5).

A basket by Arcadia’s Mychayl Phillips cut the deficit to 45-43 with 19.7 seconds left. Crescenta Valley’s Denise Dayag made two free throws to make it 47-43 with 12 seconds to go before Perez scored on a layup as time expired to seal the win.

“Both teams were missing some good players tonight and we knew coming in the Arcadia has been in a lot of close games, too,” Crescenta Valley coach Jason Perez said. “We got out to a big lead in the third quarter and then we made some mistakes with some turnovers in the fourth quarter.

“It’s great to be where we are right now, but we know it’s going to be tough in the second half of league. The thing with our team is that we’ve been in so many close games and we know how to respond.”

The Falcons, who will meet Pasadena on Tuesday, also received 11 points from Rachel Dayag, eight from Denise Dayag and six from Mary Baun.

Arcadia got 12 points apiece from Phillips, Annie Tran and Sahana Saikumar.

The teams will meet again Feb. 8 at Arcadia.

charles.rich@latimes.com

Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich

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