Crescenta Valley’s Cole Currie too much for Glendale
SOUTHEAST GLENDALE — Crescenta Valley High’s Cole Currie made a believer out of the Glendale boys’ basketball team — again.
In the teams’ latest head-to-head meeting Monday, Currie, a senior guard at Crescenta Valley, used a season-high point total to further validate his status against the Nitros.
Currie finished with 34 points, including 21 in the first half, to power Crescenta Valley to a 61-50 Pacific League road win against Glendale.
“It’s not the first time Cole Currie has done this to us,” Glendale Coach Steve Snodgress said. “He was fantastic.
“He went off in the first half and we just never recovered.”
Currie is the lone returning starter from last season, when Crescenta Valley advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division I-A semifinals and state tournament for the first time since 1994. Currie has enjoyed a recent two-week stretch that’s helped the Falcons improve to 11-4, 2-0 in league.
Currie entered the Glendale contest fresh off a 29-point effort in Crescenta Valley’s 69-60 league road victory against Muir on Friday.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive and trying to find holes,” said Currie, who scored as many first-half points as Glendale (6-8, 1-1). “I feel like I’ve been locked in mentally over the last two weeks or so.
“Things are going good for me right now and I’m trying to leave everything out there on the court.”
Currie and the Falcons, ranked sixth in the latest division poll, wasted little time heating up against the Nitros in the first of two seasons meetings.
In the second quarter, Currie converted on a pair of three-point plays and one three-pointer to spark Crescenta Valley to a 32-21 halftime lead. Currie’s first three-point play gave the Falcons a 22-14 advantage with 4:51 remaining in the first half. He then made a three-pointer to give Crescenta Valley a 29-19 lead with 2:13 left and force Snodgress to call timeout. Currie then converted on a three-point play with 1:37 left to give the Falcons a 32-21 lead.
“He’s really focused,” said Crescenta Valley Coach Shawn Zargarian, whose team competed without forward Eric Patten because of an ankle injury sustained against Muir. “It’s nice to see him have that look of a leader.”
Crescenta Valley received 11 points from Arin Pezeshkian and eight from Nick Springer.
Glendale trimmed the deficit to 37-28 on a layup by Rene Saavedra with 3:29 left in the third quarter. However, the Nitros couldn’t get closer.
“CV’s length bothered us,” said Snodgress, who got 16 points from Vahe Aristakessian, 11 from Saavedra and eight from Arada Zakarian. “We had a couple of our perimeter players struggle in part because of that.
“We have to be better on the perimeter.”
Glendale and Crescenta Valley will next meet at 5 p.m. Jan. 22 at Crescenta Valley.
The Nitros and Falcons will participate in league home games at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Glendale will face Arcadia and Crescenta Valley will take on Burbank.
