New York Scorches Mid-Valley in Las Vegas Tournament, 93-74

Mid-Valley, the American Roundball Corp.’s top team, saw its bid to defend its 1985 Las Vegas Invitational basketball title wither in the desert heat Tuesday afternoon.

With star players Don MacLean of Simi Valley and Sean Higgins of Fairfax limited to only 14 points between them, Mid-Valley lost to New York, 93-74, in second-round action at the Paul McDermott Complex on the Nevada Las Vegas campus.

ARC’s Ventura County team, with four players from the Valley area combining for 36 points, advanced to the quarterfinal round with an easy 89-68 victory over Hawaii. Gary Gray of Granada Hills High scored 17 points and was named player of the game. The Westlake trio of Rich Welch (8 points), Paul Keenan (9 points) and Dave Heckmann (12 points) contributed to Ventura’s victory.

Two other ARC teams also posted victories Tuesday. Valencia, on free throws by Crespi High’s Matt Turner with five seconds remaining, upset the Las Vegas Stars, 51-49. Kyneell McDaniels of Kennedy led Valencia with 22 points.

San Fernando stayed alive in the consolation bracket with a 64-46 victory over Provo, Utah. Steve Ward of Calabasas had eight points and Clarence Williams of Kennedy added four.

In winners’ bracket games today, Valencia will face Bahamas at 2 p.m. and Ventura County plays Century Cage Camp of Ohio at 8.

Mid-Valley moves into the runner-up championship of the 36-team tournament Thursday against an undetermined opponent. San Fernando plays next against Seattle, Wash., on Thursday at 11 a.m.

Against New York, Mid-Valley ran into a steady offense and an aggressive defense--and more. Much more. Lloyd Daniels, all 6-8 of him, scored 24 points while holding MacLean to six points and Fairfax’s Sean Higgins to eight.

Daniels also succeeded in impressing Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick, who is here along with nearly 100 other college coaches to scout high school talent.

“Sometimes teams play all summer and start to play real cool,” Harrick said of Mid-Valley’s effort. “You can’t play New York too cool. They gave them a lot of second chances.”

Daniels scored 12 points in the first quarter, when New York jumped out to a 29-16 lead.

Tournament regulations, which require five new players be sent to the floor for the second quarter, sent Daniels to the bench. His absence allowed Mid-Valley to score 10 unanswered points late in the period to pull to within two, but New York rallied to lead 46-41 at half.

MacLean entered the tournament averaging 24 points and 15 rebounds per game, but could not combat Daniels and the quicker New York team. MacLean, however, had little trouble explaining Mid-Valley’s lack of offense.

“We had a problem with Daniels,” the 6-10 center said. “He took our team apart.”

En route to last year’s championship, Mid-Valley defeated New York in the semifinals. Mid-Valley Coach Patt Barrett was surprised that this year’s rematch came so early in the tournament.

“It’s tough when the two best teams meet in the second round,” he said. “They were really coming at us. We made runs at them, but in a game like that, you have to play catch-up. We never got back on defense.”