Valencia’s First Title Follows Minor Achievement

Two starting forwards sat on the bench in street clothes.

Two guards were battling severe cramps.

Another guard propped an ice bag on his foot and watched yet another guard make only one of seven shots in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve got nobody out there,” said Coach Gary Spindt of the Valencia High boys’ basketball team. “But we had guts and we had heart that big. That’s what it takes.”

It was barely enough for the Vikings to squeeze past Canyon, 65-64, in a Foothill League game at Valencia that clinched a share of the school’s first league championship in any sport.

With a raucous packed house watching, Royce Minor made the first of two free throws with one second remaining to break a 64-64 tie.

Moments earlier, Minor needed help from an assistant coach to stretch his cramping leg.

“I knew it was money in the bank,” said Minor, who intentionally missed the second attempt to exhaust the final second on the clock.

Minor finished with 20 points. Eskias McDaniels scored 22, including 19 in the second half.

Minor was sent to the line after Canyon’s Jason French was called for a blocking foul near the three-point line as Minor drove.

The Vikings (15-11, 8-2 in league play) trailed, 64-53, with 2:10 left when Jimmy Jennings of Canyon scored on a layup.

Jennings finished with 17 points. Anthony Falasca had 16 points, including four three-point baskets, and Jacyn Ezell added 13 points for the Cowboys (12-13, 5-5), who lost their final three games after top scorer Everett Bryson was declared academically ineligible last week.

Canyon, which needed victories over Burroughs and Valencia this week to force a three-way tie for the league title, instead finished tied for third with Saugus, which defeated Hart on Thursday. Saugus claims the league’s third automatic berth to the playoffs based on a tiebreaker.

Minor’s free throw gave Valencia its first lead since early in the first quarter, when it led, 5-4, and culminated an unlikely rally.

Starting forwards Manuel White and Will Broadous did not play. White sat out with an injured shoulder and Broadous was benched because of academic ineligibility.

Minor and Albert Ingram were both hobbled with leg cramps.

“But we wanted this bad,” said McDaniels, who entered averaging a league-high 22.1 points.