Valley Digs Hole Too Deep to Fill, 77-75

Only the sands of time were dropping faster than Valley College’s shots down the stretch Saturday night in the women’s state junior college championship game.

Valley made a stunning comeback from a 23-point deficit but ran out of ticks in a 77-75 loss to defending champion Golden West at Valley.

“I think another 30 seconds and we win,” Valley Coach Doug Michelson said. “It was quite a comeback.”

Valley was reeling, down 61-38, when it began to reel in Golden West.

Katina Mines began a 9-0 Valley surge by hitting a put-back basket with 12 minutes 9 seconds to play.

Golden West’s Jennifer Harney hit a crucial three-point basket to stretch the lead to 70-54 at 6:39, but Tisa Rush of Valley immediately answered with a three-point basket of her own.

Mines made another three-point basket to cut the lead below 10 at 74-65 with 4:20 remaining and buried another three-point shot 35 seconds later. Golden West scored only two points in the last 3:53, and Valley continued to close the gap.

Rush, who scored a game-high 34 points, made a three-point shot at 2:04 and a bank shot in traffic with 45 seconds left.

“Tisa had a typical Tisa Rush game, just carrying the team for minutes at a time,” Michelson said.

Allison Bickel made two free throws with 13 seconds remaining to put Golden West ahead, 77-73. Valley’s Falicia Stanley scored a rebound basket with four seconds to play, but tournament most valuable player Bits Sirchia ran out the clock on the inbounds play to give Golden West its 27th consecutive victory.

Golden West (35-1) has won 72 of its past 74 games. Valley (32-5), making its fourth consecutive appearance in the final four, finished second for the second time in three years.

Valley opened the game well, blocking Golden West’s first two shots and taking a 4-0 lead on two Rush baskets.

Then, Golden West hit faster and more powerfully than a summer storm, raining in 14 consecutive points.

“We just waited too long to get into it,” said Rush, who was named to the all-tournament team. “The first half wasn’t Valley.”

Rush scored Valley’s first eight points, but she was the only one scoring and Valley trailed, 20-8, with 10:58 to play in the first half.

Claudia Rocha made a jump shot at the 10:34 mark to become the first Valley player other than Rush to score.

Valley shot a whopping 42 times in the first half but made only 10 (24%).

“We went in at halftime and said, ‘Hey, we have been waiting 20 games to play that way,” Golden West Coach Dave Stricklin said. “Obviously, we got off to a great start and kind of hung on at the end.”

Valley picked up its full-court pressure in the second half and also improved its shooting, making 57% of its field-goal attempts and five of 10 three-points shots.

Valley’s Sylvia Castaneda, an all-tournament selection, finished with seven points and nine assists. Roz Linton of Valley had seven points and 13 rebounds, and Claudia Rocha and Mines each scored eight.

Bickel came off the bench to lead Golden West with 20 points, making nine of 13 field-goal attempts, Harney had 18 and Sirchia scored 15.