Crescenta Valley Hoping This Dance Is a Waltz : Boys’ basketball: Falcons’ championship chances hinge on ability to slow tempo against Long Beach Poly.

The Crescenta Valley High basketball team is expected to lose a playoff game tonight.

Part Five.

The Falcons, an at-large entry, face Long Beach Poly for the Southern Section Division I-AA championship at 6:45 p.m. at the Anaheim Arena. As in their four previous playoff games, the Falcons are decided underdogs.

In order to handle the Jackrabbits, Crescenta Valley (19-9) will need to slow the tempo, as it did in playoff victories against Nogales, Antelope Valley, Fontana and Santa Ana Valley.

Poly (24-6), the Moore League champion, is led by 6-foot-6 junior forward James Brown, an excellent outside shooter who is leading the team with 16 points per game. Zerrick Campbell, a 6-6 senior forward, is averaging 12 rebounds.

The Falcons’ top players are 6-4 junior forward Brock Jacobsen, 6-0 senior guard Richard O’Neill, and 6-9 junior center Blake Jacobson. O’Neill and Jacobsen are each averaging more than 20 points.

Crescenta Valley Coach John Goffredo said Blake Jacobson’s improved rebounding--he had 15 against Santa Ana Valley--has been the key to the playoff run by the Falcons, who finished fourth in the Pacific League.

With no starters back from last year’s playoff semifinalist, Goffredo was expecting to rebuild.

“I was just hoping to win a game or two (in the playoffs) and lay a decent foundation,” Goffredo said. “But it looks like they’ve laid the foundation, put up the walls, the roof and the drywall.”