Valley Attends to Matter of State : Lady Monarchs Oust Moorpark, Secure Berth in Junior College Championships

As Yogi Berra might have said, “It was like deja vu all over again.” When the women’s basketball teams from Moorpark and Valley colleges got together for Saturday’s Southern California regional junior college playoff game at Valley, there was a strange feeling that they both had been through this before.

Introductions, certainly, were not necessary. The teams knew each other well as they both hail from the Western State Conference. And they were already champions in their own right--Valley in the Southern Division of the WSC and Moorpark in the Northern Division.

But at the end it was courageous Valley that had rebounded from an 11-point deficit to claim a 64-54 victory, the Lady Monarchs’ 13th win in a row.

Valley (29-3) advances to the state tournament, where it will play San Mateo on Thursday. The field comprises four teams each from the Northern and Southern regions.

Moorpark (23-8) trailed, 28-21, with five minutes left in the first half, but, after a timeout, the Lady Raiders went on a 12-2 run and took a 33-30 halftime lead on a three-point basket by Cindy Wiley with 14 seconds remaining.

Moorpark was still on fire at the start of the second half, hitting four quick baskets to take a 41-30 lead with 17:13 to play. Valley, looking frustrated and deflated emotionally, found one way to slow its tormentor: The Lady Monarchs called a timeout.

And when play resumed, Valley found another way, reeling off a 13-2 run to force a 43-43 tie with 7:38 to go.

“We got down by 11 and the girls looked at the scoreboard during the timeout--we got shocked and saw the season crumbling in front of us,” Valley Coach Doug Michelson said. “They just had a lot of heart and started concentrating on what they were doing.”

The lead seesawed back and forth until Valley put on another surge in the final four minutes. Tisa Rush scored seven points and Ruth Aguilar added six to pave the way for the Lady Monarchs.

“We had a lot of heart in the last few minutes,” Aguilar said. “It was a great team effort. It came from the heart--it had nothing to do with physical skill at the end.”

Rush had a game-high 18 points and Christine Rumfola added 16, 10 during in Valley’s spirited second half. Rumfola also grabbed 10 rebounds. Aguilar added 15 points and Shaggaro Lattin had seven points and 10 rebounds.

“We played as hard as we could for 35 minutes,” Moorpark Coach Gary Abraham said. “There was five minutes where we got nothing and that’s what did it. We didn’t get good shots, we made some turnovers and Ruth (Aguilar) took over for them.”

Kerrie Marshall and Julie Piantek came off the bench to lead Moorpark in scoring with 10 points each. Susie Smiley added nine points and Wiley had nine points and 10 rebounds.