Crescenta Valley High boys’ basketball falls short in loss to Village Christian
MISSION HILLS — With a fair amount of hype surrounding the Village Christian boys’ basketball team, Crescenta Valley was anything but intimidated.
Facing off against a Crusaders team that is tied for sixth in the CIF Southern Section’s top division, I-AA, and features a player headed to USC, the Falcons looked at Tuesday’s fifth-place game of the San Fernando Valley Invitational as a winnable contest.
“We had to come in with that mindset,” Crescenta Valley Coach Shawn Zargarian said. “We don’t want to just come in and say we want to compete against a team like this, we have to think that we can win.”
Crescenta Valley played well in spurts against Village Christian, even fighting back to make it a six-point game late in the third quarter. But the Crusaders pushed back, quelled the comeback attempt and downed the pesky Falcons, 72-56, at Alemany High.
“For us at this point, we need to be able to play well for the entire game, not just in spots,” said Zargarian, whose team slipped to 5-3. “Against teams like this, talented teams like Village Christian and Cathedral, teams that have a lot of hype about them and are good teams, our team kind of comes out a little shellshocked in the first quarter.
“After that, it takes us a little while to ease into it and then we’re OK. We just need to learn how to come out and be consistent from the start.”
The Falcons had trouble containing Village Christian (9-2) standout Beenie Boatwright. The 6-foot-10 senior scored a game-high 29 points to go along with 15 rebounds.
Crescenta Valley received a fine performance of its own from Arin Ovanessian, who paced thee team with 23 points, including four three-pointers. Teammates Journey Shank and Kyle Currie contributed 10 points apiece.
Neither team could take a sizable lead in the first quarter, as the Crusaders went into the first break with a 19-15 advantage. Crescenta Valley committed seven turnovers in the stanza.
In the second quarter, Village Christian was able to take control of the game due in part to poor shooting by the Falcons and a fine effort by Boatwright, who scored 11 in the stanza. The Falcons missed their first seven shots from the field in the quarter and ended just one of nine (11.1%). The lone field goal in the second was a three-pointer by Currie with 1:37 left.
That allowed the Crusaders to go into the half with a 40-24 lead.
In the first half, the Falcons converted just eight of 18 free-throw attempts.
“One thing that we like to hang our hat on is that even when we’re down, we play hard and we’re aggressive and assertive and we never back down,” Zargarian said. “We just never back down.”
That philosophy showed in the third quarter. Ovenessian caught fire, scoring 13 points. As a result, when Chris Reik muscled up for a layup under the basket with 1:27 remaining, Crescenta Valley had trimmed the lead to six, 47-41.
“That’s what we talked about at halftime; to try and cut the lead down to maybe six points with under three minutes to get back into the game,” Ovenessian said. “I never know when I’m going to start like that and be on, but once I start I just seem to keep going.”
Unfortunately for the Falcons, they couldn’t keep up the momentum. The Crusaders came on and made it a 13-point game after three quarters, 54-41.
Village Christian kept coming in the fourth and the Falcons couldn’t stem the rush.
