Halftime Harangue Provides Impetus for Valley, 84-69

They brought out the adhesive tape before Wednesday night’s basketball game between Valley and Glendale colleges and patched an area on the hardwood floor at Glendale College.

By halftime, Valley Coach Jim Stephens was doing some bandaging of his own in an effort to stop the Monarchs’ bleeding. And his heated words had quite a healing effect on his players.

Trailing by seven points at halftime and on the verge of losing its third game in four tries, Valley rallied for an impressive 84-69 Western State Conference South Division victory.

And the surprising thing was the Monarchs did it without leading scorer Randy Brown, who came into the game averaging 20.3 points an outing.

Brown, who had a game-high 14 points at intermission, injured his thumb in the first half and saw only limited action in the final 20 minutes, missing his only shot. The initial indication was a broken bone. Brown was taken to the hospital after the game for X-rays and could miss Valley’s final regular-season contest Saturday at Bakersfield.

In Brown’s absence, several players stepped up for Valley, sophomore center Art Kirksey in particular.

Kirksey, who had four points and one rebound at halftime, finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds and controlled the middle for Valley in the second half.

“The coach went at us at halftime. He did what it took to get our heads into the game,” Kirksey said. “Somebody had to step up, because it looked like we were letting it get out of hand.”

Russell Baldwin also had a hand in Valley’s comeback, scoring 16 second-half points to finish with 20. He also had 10 rebounds.

The Monarchs (17-13, 6-3 in division play) sank eight of their first 11 shots in the second half to erase a 38-31 deficit. They took the lead for good, 47-45, on a 10-foot bank shot by Kirksey.

“I really got on some individuals at halftime and told them, ‘You guys are stinking the place up,’ ” Stephens said. “That’s probably as good a half as we’ve played all year.”

Glendale (13-14, 3-5), meanwhile, missed 13 of its first 16 shots in the second half and finished just 10 of 36 (28%) in the final 20 minutes. The misses translated to a 20-rebound edge for Valley in the second half.

“We we’re getting good looks (at the basket), but the shots just weren’t dropping,” said Glendale Coach Brian Beauchemin, whose team is still in the hunt for one of the 32 berths in the upcoming Southern California regional of the state tournament.

David Knight and Shane Bright added 12 and 11 points for Valley.

Alfonso Pule (15 points) and Osiris Nalls and Juwan Smith (13 each) led five Glendale players in double figures.