Falcons’ balance beats Burbank
BURBANK — The Crescenta Valley High boys’ basketball team possesses a dual challenge for opposing defenses.
The Falcons move the ball around with exacting precision, opening shooting opportunities for their outside shooters. Couple that with the fact the squad has its share of bigs who can pound in the ball down low, and the double threat can be daunting for teams trying to stop it.
Burbank found that out Friday night.
Crescenta Valley connected on nine three-pointers and received a big game from junior Cole Currie to defeat the host Bulldogs, 67-55, in a Pacific League contest.
It was the second straight league setback for Burbank (8-7, 0-2), which also fell to Pasadena in its league-opener Wednesday.
“A lot of teams will have a really good big man or some really good guards, but we’re fortunate to have good bigs and good guards this year,” said Crescenta Valley Coach Shawn Zargarian, whose team improved to 13-2, 2-0. “I thought that we had a lot of composure, we took the shots we wanted to and we minimized our mistakes.”
The Falcons’ outside shooters gave the Bulldogs fits all night. Currie constantly fought to get open on the perimeter, which resulted in a game-high 28 points — including four three-pointers. Teammate Dylan Kilgour, a senior, connected on three three-pointers and ended with 15 points.
Burbank trailed by seven points, 51-44, after three quarters. However, the Bulldogs endured a horrendous fourth quarter in which they converted just one field goal attempt in the first five minutes and made just three of 13 shots from the field in the stanza.
“It was just a matter of us not executing our game plan, especially in the fourth,” Burbank Coach Jose Hernandez said. “We knew that they could shoot, it’s just that our guards left them open and they did their job at knocking ‘em down, and we didn’t.”
Burbank received 15 points each from Remy Youssefi and Andre Spight and 11 from Thomas Khodjasarian.
The game was evenly matched in the first quarter, as the Falcons jumped out to a 16-12 lead on the strength of Currie’s nine points.
However, Burbank rallied in the second and snatched the lead, 21-20, with 5:12 left in the half on a three-point play by Spight. The Falcons fought their way back, regaining the lead and taking a 31-26 advantage into halftime.
“We have five guys on the floor who can all score,” said Zargarian, who received 11 points and 13 rebounds from senior center Christian Misi. “That’s nice to have.”