College Basketball : Valley Women Work Overtime for 71-65 Win

Valley won its ninth consecutive game Wednesday night, but it wasn’t easy as the Monarchs were forced into overtime before defeating San Bernardino, 71-65, in a Southern California Conference women’s basketball game at Valley.

Bernadette Tillis scored 6 of her 12 points in overtime to lead Valley after Dametra Johnson, who scored a game-high 25 points, had fouled out early in the extra period.

“She really took over when Dametra fouled out,” Valley Coach Doug Michelson said of Tillis, who also had eight assists.

Roberta Camacho of San Bernardino sent the game into overtime when she hit a jumper with four seconds remaining to tie the score, 59-59.

The Monarchs held a comfortable 34-25 lead at halftime, but San Bernardino’s half-court trap defense slowed their vaunted running attack in the second half.

“They used their height to control the boards,” Michelson said, “And we weren’t able to run on them in the second half. They did a good job of taking away some of our offensive weapons.”

Valley, the No. 3-ranked JC team in the state, made only 30 of 84 field-goal attempts (35.7%) and 11 of 23 free throws.

Stephanie Groff scored 23 points for San Bernardino (13-7, 2-1).

Valley 76, Barstow 65--Despite making just 7 of 25 shots, Valley’s Steve Ward, who entered the game shooting 68%, still finished with 23 points in the Southern California Conference game at Barstow.

Three other Valley players, David Weiss (13), Oral Elrington (11) and Warren Vinson (10), finished in double digits.

Joe Bradford had a game-high 33 points for Barstow.