Timing Deserts Mid-Valley in Las Vegas Invitational

Timing as much as performance prevailed at the Las Vegas Invitational basketball tournament this week. At least that’s the view of Rich Goldberg, the American Roundball Corp. president who accompanied his teams to the five-day event at Nevada Las Vegas.

ARC’s Mid-Valley team lost its chance to repeat as champion when the team fell to the New York Gauchos in Tuesday’s second round. New York won this year’s championship with a 96-72 victory over Slam ‘N Jam of Los Angeles on Friday night.

Mid-Valley steadily improved in the tournament winning four of five games, including an 87-70 win over Georgia in the runner-up bracket championship on Friday behind 30 points from Sean Higgins and 21 from Chris Mills.

Goldberg said Tuesday’s defeat to New York had more to do with when the game was played than how it was played.

Mid-Valley, which defeated the Gauchos in the semifinals last year, played with five juniors this season. All Mid-Valley needed was a little more time, Goldberg said.

“It took us a while to jell,” he said. “Having to play New York in the second round killed us. We’re starting to play team ball. If we played them now, it would be a different story.”

But even if Mid-Valley gained a rematch against New York, the play of the Gauchos’ 6-8 Lloyd Daniels might have ensured a similar outcome. Daniels, a high school All-American, scored 24 points against Mid-Valley and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Pat Barrett, the Mid-Valley coach, tried to view his team’s loss optimistically.

“When you get beat by the champions, that’s not too bad,” Barrett said.

Higgins and Mills, both from Fairfax High, were selected to the all-tournament team along with Sean Rooks of Ventura ARC.

Ventura finished sixth in the tournament, losing to Kentucky on Friday, 89-75. Westlake High’s Paul Keenan led Ventura with 19 points, Gary Gray, of Granada Hills, scored 17 and San Fernando’s Shelton Boykin had 11. Gray concluded the tournament with a 16-point average.