Mendez Gets 26, Valley Women Cruise Past Santa Monica, 63-54

When in need of a little finesse in an otherwise physical and sloppy basketball game, always count on Rosa Mendez to shine through the mayhem.

Mendez, a sharpshooting sophomore guard, scored a game-high 26 points to lead Valley in a 63-54 victory over host Santa Monica in a Western State Conference South Division matchup Saturday.

The victory kept the Monarchs (21-4, 7-1), ranked eighth in the state, in first place in their division. Santa Monica dropped to 15-8, 5-3.

Valley gained control from the start and never trailed. The Monarchs led by as many as 24 points (63-39) before relaxing on defense and allowing Santa Monica to score the final 15 points.

Even with Mendez’s hot hand, the Monarchs held only a 31-21 edge at the half. That’s when Valley Coach Doug Michelson went to the whip.

“We determined at halftime we wanted to increase the tempo using a full-court press,” Michelson said. “It was very effective.”

Was it ever.

Valley forced the Corsairs into 18 second-half turnovers (29 overall). Many of them contributed to an 18-6 streak by the Monarchs to start the second half that basically sealed the victory.

“My kids didn’t come ready to play,” Corsair Coach Avie J. Bridges said. “We had very intense practices this week, but from the beginning, we were like in a fog out there mentally. We played as bad as we can play.”

Besides the turnovers, Santa Monica shot poorly, especially from the free-throw line. The Corsairs made only four of 13 free throws (30.7%) and 25 of 78 field-goal attempts (32.0%). Valley was 25 of 70 from the field (35.7%) and 13 of 16 (81.2%) in free throws.

In fact, the Monarchs did not miss a free throw until midway through the second half. They made their first nine.

Mendez, who came into the game with a 15.3 scoring average, made 13 of 29 shots (44.8%), mostly from about 15 feet. She connected on four consecutive attempts during one stretch in the final half.

Her shooting was a bright spot during a second half progressively marred with mistakes and wild sequences. Valley scored its first six points in the half on free throws after Santa Monica defenders, frustrated by the Monarch press, hacked Valley shooters.

Guard Nicole Baynes scored 10 points and center Luscinda Silva added six for the Monarchs. Starting center Amy Horst led Valley with 11 rebounds.