Surprising Fort Irwin Falls in Coup Attempt Against Valley, 98-94

The Fort Irwin Warriors are an Army team trying to be all they can be.

And until Thursday night, when it was ambushed by some civilians from Valley College, the Warriors thought they just might be good enough to win the Antelope Valley College basketball tournament.

Valley jumped to an early 21-point lead, then held off a late Fort Irwin charge to defeat the military men from just outside Barstow, 98-94, in a quarterfinal game.

“We’re just trying to represent the military in incredible fashion and have a little fun,” Fort Irwin Coach David Srein said.

The free-shooting Warriors (10-4) did both on Thursday, extending Valley (3-1) to the limit before freshmen Oral Elrington (a game-high 35 points and 13 rebounds), Tory Stephens (25 points--9 in the last 5 minutes) and Joey Manliguis (18 points) blew taps.

The Monarchs led, 36-15, in the first half but saw the Warriors take several 1-point leads late in the second half. A 3-point shot by Robert Pittman tied the score, 94-94, with 50 seconds to play.

But Manliguis found Elrington for a layup with 16 seconds left to put Valley ahead, 96-94.

The Warriors’ Glenn Thompson was fouled at the other end but missed both free throws. Manliguis capped the scoring with a pair of free throws.

Valley will play Golden West in a championship semifinal at 7:30 tonight.

In other tournament games:

Riverside 71, Canyons 65--After battling Riverside even for a half, Canyons made just 1 of its first 10 shots in the second half and never could catch the Tigers (6-2). The Cougars scored just 7 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Larry Allbritton led the Cougars (3-4) with 18 points, including 4 3-point shots.

Canyons shot just 39 percent from the field.

The Cougars will meet the loser of Thursday’s late game, either Desert or Santa Monica, today at 5:45 p.m. The winner of that game will play for third place Saturday.

Glendale 82, Barstow 75-- Clarence Williams and Dave Swanson each scored 19 points to lead the Vaqueros to a consolation-bracket victory.