Glendale Coach Credits Altered State for Upset

Good basketball teams generally have a steady sixth man coming off the bench. Glendale College has a sixth sense, too.

That’s how Coach Brian Beauchemin is partly accounting for Glendale’s 76-70 upset of L.A. City on Saturday night in a Southern California men’s regional playoff.

“We had an outer-body experience,” Beauchemin said, laughing.

Whatever it was, the Vaqueros (23-10) are headed for the state championships Thursday through Saturday at University of the Pacific in Stockton after knocking off the state’s top-ranked team.

The Vaqueros, making their first appearance in the Final Eight since 1985 in Fresno, face San Jose City (30-5) in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Thursday. Glendale is ranked No. 13 in the state, San Jose is ranked No. 4.

Glendale’s Marc Walters, a 6-foot-5 freshman forward from the Bronx, N.Y., scored a career-high 26 points to help sink the Cubs (32-4).

“Our guards made a conscious effort to get the ball to Walters,” Beauchemin said. “[L.A. City] didn’t have an answer for him.”

Beauchemin, in his 22nd season with the Vaqueros, said the players talked about upsetting L.A. City on the ride to the game. The Cubs were coming off a 93-62 pasting of San Diego City three nights earlier.

“I feel like the gutty, little Bruin routine,” Beauchemin said. “The kids didn’t even know how to act afterward. They just laid down on the floor because they saw someone else do it.”

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Moorpark is in the men’s Final Eight for the second consecutive year after defeating Valley, 88-74, in a bracket final on Saturday night.

The Raiders (25-5) play Foothill (25-9) in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 2 p.m. and Coach Remy McCarthy said his team is going to Stockton to challenge for the championship.

“I think we match up with everyone in the tournament,” McCarthy said. “We feel like we belong.”

With their dynamic backcourt tandem of sophomores Devin Montgomery and T.K. Reed, the Raiders, ranked No. 5 in the state, seem to have as good a chance as anyone of winning the championship.

Montgomery, from Alemany High, scored 40 points against Valley and Reed, from Sylmar, had 11 assists.

The Raiders are strong in the frontline with 6-5 Brian Smith and his brother, 6-6 Simmagin, former Cleveland standouts, and 6-7 Lester Strong. A key is for Strong to avoid foul trouble. McCarthy said the freshman from Denver has fouled out six or seven times.

Moorpark is the only men’s team from last year’s Final Eight to reach the championships.

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There won’t be a Glendale-Moorpark men’s final at Stockton.

If they win on Thursday, the teams will meet in the semifinals on Friday.

Glendale defeated the Raiders, 79-76, in the Moorpark tournament final in November.

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It’s the same old story for the Ventura women’s basketball team.

The Pirates (30-4) are ranked No. 1 in the state and vying for their second consecutive state title and fourth since 1996.

Ventura plays Lassen (26-5) in the quarterfinals on Thursday night at Delta College. The semifinals are Friday at Delta and the final is Saturday at Pacific.

No other women’s team has won more than two state titles and no team other than Ventura has reached the Final Eight each year since 1995.