Valley Sees Title Shot Disappear

It was a rally Wall Street would have envied, a bull run that put Santa Monica City College up a few points and then some.

And when it was over, and the buzzer had sounded, Valley was left to ponder the “what ifs” and “if onlys” of a regular season that saw the Monarchs come oh-so-close to a division championship.

But that will belong to Santa Monica, which finally broke away from the pesky Monarchs to win the game, 76-65, and take the Western State Conference South Division title Saturday night at Valley.

Santa Monica’s stock has definitely risen the past few seasons. The Corsairs (27-3, 9-1 in division play) have won the WSC South three of the past four seasons.

In three seasons as Valley’s coach, Doug Michelson has yet to beat Santa Monica, losing to the Corsairs six times.

The Monarchs (22-10, 7-3) went into the game with a chance to claim a share of the division championship, and for 35 minutes they were still within reach of that goal.

The score was tied, 57-57, with 5 minutes 52 seconds remaining. But that’s when the Corsairs went soaring into the distance, scoring 17 of the next 21 points to assume a 74-61 lead with 43 seconds to play.

Leading the charge was former North Hollywood High standout Damon Ollie, who was recruited by Michelson but instead chose Santa Monica.

Ollie, who finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds, scored eight points in a 2:21 span to put the Corsairs ahead, 67-60, with 2:08 left.

Valley tried three different defensive alignments against Ollie, but nothing seemed to work for very long.

“I’d say Damon Ollie kind of took the game over at that point,” Michelson said. “Everything he threw up there went in. He’s a tough matchup.”

It only got worse from there for Valley, as Santa Monica sank nine of 14 free throws in the final 1:31 and built its lead to as many as 13 points.

“Did [Ollie] take over the game or not?” Santa Monica Coach John McMullen said. “There’s an example of a great player making great plays. The man went to work.”

The Corsairs, the WSC’s top defensive team, held Valley to 33% shooting in the second half and 35% overall, but they looked anything but a division champion in the first half.

They shot just 29% from the field, committed 11 turnovers, scored one field goal in the first seven minutes and went six minutes without a basket during another stretch.

But Santa Monica stayed in the game and eventually took the lead with the help of some fine free-throw shooting.

The Corsairs sank 17 of 19 free throws in the first half, which helped make up for six-of-21 field-goal shooting.

Valley, which wound up third in the division behind Santa Monica and Bakersfield (8-2 in conference play), still qualified for the playoffs, which start this week.

Michael Farmer led Valley with 18 points and Benny Hoang added 14 points.

David Rickenbacker had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Corsairs.