Valley Continues Championship March

As celebrations go, it was rather subdued.

After all, there is still one more victory to go before the Valley College men’s basketball team can call itself outright champion in the Western State Conference Southern Division.

But the Monarchs took one giant step in the right direction with an 86-79 victory Wednesday over perennial power Santa Monica at Valley.

The victory assured at least a share of the first title in three seasons for the Monarchs (22-8, 9-2).

They can clinch it outright with a victory Saturday night at West Los Angeles.

While Coach Doug Michelson of Valley wasn’t ready to celebrate, he was excited about his team’s performance in the second half, when the Monarchs fought back from an eight-point deficit.

“This was a big game for us and the players really showed a lot of poise in the second half,” Michelson said.

Particularly Michael Crawford.

The 6-foot-6 freshman barely had a chance to work up a sweat in the first half.

He was called for two fouls in the first 40 seconds and didn’t play the rest of the half.

Crawford said he wanted to redeem himself in the second half and responded with all 15 of his points.

“I wanted to come out and be the X factor,” he said. “I wanted to help us get the W and win the conference title.”

Felix Lang also came through in the second half, when he scored 15 of his game-high 26 points.

Valley didn’t take the lead for good until Issac Williamson scored on a layup for a 66-65 advantage with 6:18 remaining.

It wasn’t until Crawford’s layup with five seconds remaining that the Monarchs could start to celebrate.

The win was especially sweet since Santa Monica had defeated Valley in two previous meetings this season.

The Corsairs (22-9, 7-4), ranked No. 8 in the state, were also defending division champions.

Crawford said he will not be celebrating until after the game against West Los Angeles.

“This was a big one to get, but we know we still have to win down there to win it outright,” he said.

Santa Monica opened up an 11-0 lead in the first four minutes, the worst start of the conference season for Valley, and stretched it to 22-8 with 12:44 remaining in the first half.

But the Monarchs, who have overcome numerous slow starts this season, responded with an 18-0 run over the next 6:40 and didn’t trail the rest of the half.