Glendale Surprises L.A. City

The Glendale College men’s basketball team has been in this position before and fallen short.

This time the Vaqueros were not going to let it happen.

They built an early lead and held off a furious comeback in the closing minutes for a surprising 76-70 victory over L.A. City in a Southern California regional bracket final Saturday night at L.A. City.

Glendale (23-10), which was seeded No. 8 in Southern California, earned a berth in the eight-team state tournament March 8-10 in Stockton.

It will be Glendale’s first appearance in the state finals since 1985.

It was the fourth season in a row the Vaqueros reached the third round of the regional playoffs.

Coach Brian Beauchemin liked his team’s chances.

“I told them if we keep it close, we’ll get lucky,” he said. “We got lucky.”

Unlike last season, when the top-seeded Cubs opened up a big lead early in the game and won, 107-83, the Vaqueros started off quickly.

Glendale pulled ahead early and led, 42-33, at the half. They stretched it to 51-37 on a three-point basket by Michael Schnyder with 14:51 remaining.

Then they withstood a 17-4 run by L.A. City, which pulled to within 55-54 with 6:16 remaining.

The Cubs (32-4), ranked No. 3 in the state, never took the lead.

With Marc Walters and Schnyder leading the way, Glendale opened up a seven-point lead with 53 seconds remaining and held off the Cubs.

Walters finished with 26 points, making 10 of 19 shots, and Schnyder had 14 points.

L.A. City, which has won eight consecutive South Coast Conference titles, was led by Jimmy Miggins, who had 20 points, and Rafael Berumen, who had 19 and 10 rebounds.