Posted: Dec 08, 2019
The West Valley basketball team claimed the championship of the Monterey Peninsula College Classic with a rousing 70-67 win over previously unbeaten Irvine Valley Saturday night in Monterey.
Tournament MVP Ben Baker had a game-high 22 points to lead the Vikings to their fourth-straight win and improve their season mark to 6-4. All-Tournament selection Adam Afifi had nine big first-half points on his way to 15 for the game.
Devon Banks drained a trey at 13:41 for a 16-14 lead the Vikings never relinquished. They led by as many as 13 in the second half before a Laser rally closed the score to 68-67 with 2:20 remaining.
Afifi, who picked up his fourth foul at 9:51, reentered the game and hit a key bucket with :34 to go off a perfect pass from Leland Estacio. IVC (8-1) called a timeout with 7.4 seconds left, but were unable to get off a shot before the buzzer.
West Valley reached Saturday's championship with a 72-65 win over Cypress in Thursday's opener and an 87-74 semifinal win over Solano. They have a few days to rest up before heading to Pleasanton to take on Diablo Valley (4-3) and Sacramento City (6-3) at the DVC Classic Dec.13-14.