One Half Is Enough for Valley

It was not their finest performance of the season.

At times, it appeared more like a season opener than a conference opener.

All things considered, though, the Valley College wasn’t complaining about its 85-67 victory Wednesday night over rival Canyons in a Western State Conference men’s basketball Southern Division opener.

“I’m never mixed about a win,” Coach Doug Michelson of Valley said. “This was an important game for us and I think we played like it was.”

That was certainly the case in the first half when the Monarchs (13-5) opened up a 38-20 advantage.

After Valley lost to conference rival Santa Monica in the final of the Desert tournament last week, forward Jerrohn Jordan said the team was focusing on playing Canyons (7-12).

“After that game, we were a little down,” Jordan said. “So we worked really hard in practice and that showed in the first half.”

Michelson said he was impressed that Valley held the Cougars to 20 points in the first half.

Canyons made only six of 32 shots in the first half, including one of 11 three-pointers.

The coach wasn’t nearly as happy about how his team played in the second half, when it gave up 47 points.

“We just didn’t handle their press very well,” he said. “We wanted to put the ball in [point guard Joe] Bakhoum’s hands and we didn’t get it into his hands enough.”

From a defensive standpoint, Michelson didn’t have too many complaints.

Entering the game, he said the objective for the Monarchs was to outrebound Canyons by at least 10.

They didn’t quite accomplish that goal, but they did manage a 41-32 rebounding advantage.

They consistently made life difficult for Canyons by sending four or five players to the boards.

Jerrohn Jordan, from Valencia High, finished with 15 points and nine rebounds.

The Monarchs, ranked 14th in the state by the J.C. Athletic Bureau, were led by guard Felix Lang with 16 points.

Terrance Slater finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, and Michael Crawford 12 points and seven rebounds for Valley.

“It was a fairly good performance but we still have room to improve,” Jordan said.

Anthony Ellison, from Canoga Park High, had 21 points and 12 rebounds for Canyons Michael Goldman had 16 points.