Crescenta Valley Outlasts Rio Mesa

The Crescenta Valley High girls’ basketball team won a Southern Section Division II-AA playoff game Saturday night but still missed the dance.

Four Falcons missed their school’s junior prom to help their team defeat Rio Mesa, 46-38, in a second-round game at Rio Mesa.

“It wasn’t a tough decision because we all wanted to play basketball,” said junior guard Amirah Leonard, who scored 26 points.

Crescenta Valley (23-6) will meet No. 1-seeded and nationally ranked Woodbridge next Saturday in a quarterfinal game at Crescenta Valley.

Rio Mesa (16-9) led by as many as five points through much of the third quarter and entered the final quarter with a 34-29 lead.

However, outsized Crescenta Valley’s full-court pressure finally wore down the Spartans.

The Falcons forced seven turnovers during a two-minute fourth-quarter span in which Rio Mesa got off only one shot. It led to a 10-0 run that turned a 37-32 deficit into a 42-37 Crescenta Valley lead.

The Falcons committed only seven turnovers.

“I think they were getting tired,” Crescenta Valley Coach Marc Ward said of Rio Mesa. “They were hitting their shots in the third quarter, then lost their legs.”

Spartan Coach Al Walker agreed.

“We lost our focus,” he said. “Maybe it was fatigue. When you get mentally tired, you make physical mistakes too.”

Briana Kanongata’a scored 16 points for Rio Mesa.

Michelle Greco scored 12 points for Crescenta Valley.