Golden Valley, West Ranch officially join Foothill League title race
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
A couple of big ‘what in the world?’ performances came out of the Santa Clarita Valley on Tuesday when upstarts West Ranch and Golden Valley officially jumped into the Foothill League boys’ basketball title race.
West Ranch beat Canyon, 68-56, to earn their first-ever Foothill League victory, and Golden Valley hung tough in a 72-68 loss to defending league champion Hart.
The West Ranch win wasn’t the biggest surprise -- after all, the Wildcats are off to a 13-4 start and have beaten San Fernando Invitational finalist Beverly Hills and Marmonte League title chaser Thousand Oaks. So, while the Wildcats get the award for most-improved team in the Foothill League, the Grizzlies get the slight edge in the ‘whoa!’ category.
Led by the net-swooshing trio of Maverick Ahanmisi, Trevor Wiseman and Stephen Lopez, the Grizzlies have gone 10-5 with encouraging performances in the Simi Valley and Crescenta Valley tournaments.
Still, what puts Golden Valley in the underdog bin, for the time being, is that it hasn’t beaten a good or above-average team. It’s come close to winning against Hart, Ventura and Knight, but it hasn’t quite made the big-time.
Of course, that could all change with a victory Friday night against a determined Canyon team looking to prove it’s still a title contender. Plus, West Ranch’s game against Saugus on Friday should be a doozy.
-- Austin Knoblauch
