Monroe Defeats Birmingham, Wins Mid-Valley Championship

There it is, in three-foot-high letters at Monroe High, one of the great oxymorons ever painted on a gymnasium wall.

Vikings of the Valley, it says. Must have paddled right up the L.A. River.

With respect to mutually exclusive terms, it ranks up there with phrases such as Swimmers of the Serengeti. Or, on a more localized bent, Monroe hoop champs.

Use the latter in past tense.

Monroe withstood a furious comeback attempt by Birmingham and held on to win, 71-63, in a Mid-Valley League game Wednesday at Monroe.

The victory gave Monroe (19-3, 10-1 in league) its first league title since 1975-76.

The third quarter began with Monroe holding a 12-point lead, but Birmingham (16-7, 9-3) clawed back.

“At halftime, I heard guys start talking about league championships,” Monroe Coach Paul Graber said. “We had to refocus.”

Trouble was, Birmingham was playing for a league title as well. The Braves went on a 15-6 run in the third quarter and trailed by five entering the fourth.

A chess game ensued. Monroe, a transition team, tried to break loose against the set-up offense of Birmingham. As often as Birmingham hammered the ball inside to center Raffi Kassabian--who finished with a game-high 25 points--Monroe looked for the quick kill off the break.

“The transition, that’s our game,” Graber said. “As soon as they came out of the half-court, they played to our strength.”

The point-counterpoint strategy continued into the fourth quarter before Jeff Nadeau (16 points) scored on a reverse lay-in and followed with a fast-break dunk to extend Monroe’s lead to six, 57-51.

Birmingham shortly thereafter committed consecutive turnovers. Kenyatta Niles converted the second to give Monroe a 61-53 lead with 1 minute 17 seconds left.

Thereafter, it became a free-throw contest. Monroe knocked in 10 consecutive free throws in the final 56 seconds to hold off the Braves, who made only six of 15 overall and one of four in the quarter.