Valley Alive After Beating Canyons, 88-67

It is not yet time to write off the Valley College men’s basketball team.

The Monarchs, losers of three in a row, appeared to be down for the count entering Saturday night’s Western State Conference South Division game at Canyons. But after a convincing 88-67 whipping of the Cougars, Valley appears to have some punch left.

“This was a very big win for us,” Valley Coach Jim Stephens said. “If we lose this game, we’re out of the race. We win it, and we’re back in it.”

That, the Monarchs (11-10 overall) are.

The victory evened their division record at 1-1 and snapped a three-game winning streak of defending champion Canyons (16-6, 1-1).

Valley’s victory was the result of a superb defensive effort and good shooting, particularly from outside.

The Monarchs’ matchup zone held Canyons to 36.8% (25 of 68) shooting from the field.

Meanwhile, Valley made 36 of 68 field-goal attempts (52.9%), including nine of 16 from beyond the three-point line.

Randy Brown scored a game-high 23 points for Valley, and Art Kirksey added 19, 17 in the second half.

Ahead, 43-34, at halftime, the Monarchs outscored Canyons, 13-6, in the first 4 minutes 11 seconds of the second half to take a 56-40 advantage with 15:49 left. Canyons got no closer than 13 points after that.

“That was a big key for us,” Stephens said. “All season long, we’ve started slowly in the second half. Tonight we came out and took it to them.”

Valley had turned the ball over on seven consecutive possessions to start the second half of Wednesday night’s 82-66 loss to Santa Monica. Against Canyons, the Monarchs hit six of their first eight shots and turned the ball over only twice in their first 10 possessions.

While Kirksey and Brown did most of their scoring inside, Eric Dafney (12 points), David Knight (12) and David Tyner (eight), consistently hit the outside shots. Russell Baldwin (10) scored on a variety of shots from inside and outside.

Valley’s long-distance marksmen were particularly effective in the first half, hitting seven of 12 three-point shots. Dafney was four of four from three-point range.

His last basket came with seven seconds left in the half and capped a 9-2 Monarch surge to end the first 20-minute period.

Valley appeared to be on the verge of blowing out the Cougars with eight minutes left in the first half, leading, 32-18. But Canyons went on a 14-2 run to narrow the deficit to 34-32 with 2:35 left.

Tim Fontenette began the surge with a basket inside and David Langley capped it with a three-point basket.

Langley scored a team-high 16 points for Canyons, but only four came in the second half. Reggie Bell and Jason Joynes each added 12 points for the Cougars, but Marquis Wilborn was held to four.

Wilborn entered the game as Canyons’ third-leading scorer with a 14.6 average.