3C2A Men's Basketball Semifinal #1: West Valley returns to championship game with 55-48 win over Yuba

Men's Basketball Tournament Central

WALNUT - West Valley College has waited since 2022 and played 63 games to return to the 3C2A Men's Basketball Championship game.

After a hard-fought game against a stingy Yuba team, the Vikings accomplished their goal with a low-scoring 55-48 victory in the state semifinals Saturday night at Mt. San Antonio College. 

After nearly 20 trips to the final eight, West Valley will have a chance to capture the first title in team history on Sunday. They'll face the winner of Saturday's second semifinal between Fullerton College and College of the Sequoias at 3:30 p.m.

As an 11-point lead began to shrink in the last few minutes, the Vikings persevered and made a crucial basket from sophomore guard Jeremiah Dargan and got a big defensive rebound from freshman center Shakir Odunewu.

Dargan connected on a floater to give the Vikings a 53-46 lead with 46 seconds left while Odunewu grabbed a defensive rebound with 21 seconds left which sealed the deal.

With the win, West Valley improved to 32-0 on the season with one more big game to go, while Yuba finished at 29-3.

Leading the way for the Vikings with 16 points each were sophomore Elijah Mahi and Odunewu. Odunewu also had a game-high 14 rebounds.

Dargan and sophomore guard Jake Davis added eight points each for the Vikings. Davis also added a couple of 3-pointers.

"This is the end goal to get to the championship (game)," Dargan said. "It feels good and a big relief and (we) didn't let ourselves down and proved what we were doing the whole season."

West Valley coach and alum Danny Yoshikawa knows of the tradition-rich history of the program and said: "This is what we have (really) waited for since 1992," said Yoshikawa of the wait. "We've been to the elite eight close to 20 times. It's hard to win. I'm trying to beat whoever we play.

"We're making history and I just feel really lucky to be here. This really was two great teams, and the bottom line is we defended them, and we made shots when it counted."

Yuba was led by sophomore forward Devon Malcolm with a game-high 22 points who went 10 for 22 from the field. He also grabbed 12 rebounds. Also, in double figures for the Niners was sophomore forward Cam Niles with 10 points. Yuba had a tough night beyond the arc, missing all 15 attempts.

It was a back-and-forth game early in the first half with neither team extending the lead.

Davis gave West Valley an early 9-8 lead on the first of his two 3-pointers in the half. Davis had eight points through the first 20 minutes.

Malcolm, who led the 49ers in the half with 15 points (7 for 13 shooting), answered with a slam dunk to take a brief, 10-9, lead at the 12:32 mark.

The Vikings led the rest of the opening half, which was highlighted by an 11-4 run over a 7-minute span. Highlighting the run was the second long-range basket by Davis and a slam dunk by Odunewu to give West Valley a 23-16 lead, its largest of the half. 

The teams exchanged baskets the remainder of the half, with Davis tossing in a soft floater at the buzzer to give the Vikings a 5-point lead at the break.

The second half started slow for both teams until West Valley caught on fire with the first six points to take an 11-point lead, 35-24, which was the largest in the early going. Niles broke the streak for Yuba with a driving layup, cutting the lead to 35-26.

The Vikings stretched the lead to 15 points, 41-26, on a layup by Baron Bracey

That lead began to slowly shrink over the next 10 minutes, as Yuba connected for 18 points to only eight for Valley to trail, 49-44.

(John Sherrard, 3C2A)