SAN JOSE — Valley Christian has a lot of ways to beat you.
When the Warriors are on, as they were Friday night against Menlo-Atherton, they’re tough to stop. Star forward Brayden Harris can score from anywhere on the floor, and Justin Hampton, Bryant Clark and Teniola Bamisebi are all capable contributors.
But Friday, Valley also got contributions from Hudson Dennison and Jadon Shabaglian, and that was too much for M-A to handle in San Jose. The Warriors jumped out to an 11-point lead early in the second quarter and controlled the action the rest of the way, ultimately winning 65-51.
“We’ve had a hard time with M-A in the last two years,” said VC coach Colin Pfaff. “They’re really tough. They’re so well-coached. The kids play so hard. They’re just such a scary matchup. But our guys played really well.”
The game, an opening-round matchup in the CCS Open Division, was a matchup of No. 4 VC and No. 5 M-A. With the section’s pool play format, it was not an elimination game.
Both teams will play the other two teams in the bracket, No. 1 Riordan and No. 8 Mitty, in a round-robin format. The team with the best record advances to the CCS Open title game.
Riordan is the heavy favorite to emerge from Valley and M-A’s side of the Open field. So while it wasn’t just a moral victory, Friday’s win was more about what it set up for VC down the road in the CIF NorCal tournament, which all Open teams are guaranteed to make.
“When you play teams like M-A and the Serras of the world, you have to match their physicality and their toughness, and we hadn’t done that in the past,” Pfaff said. “And tonight, I felt like we actually did that for the first time, and that was great. And then we shot the ball really well. That always helps.”
Every time the Bears (18-7) made a run, Valley Christian (18-7) had a response ready to go. A number of those shots came from Harris, who led VC with 16 points.
Never was it more apparent that it was Valley’s night than in the fourth quarter. After VC led by as many as 14 points, M-A engineered a quick run to cut the deficit to nine.
The Bears played 34 seconds of phenomenal defense on VC’s next offensive possession. But with the shot clock about to expire, Harris heaved a deep 3-pointer toward the rim and banked it in.
The desperation chuck put the Warriors up double digits once again, and they never led by less than 10 points the rest of the way.
“The sky’s the limit for us,” Harris said. “We can make a deep playoff run. We have to keep building on this. We have a great team. We all support each other, and we’re all here for each other. That shows out on the court. We build off of each other.”
With two more games still to go in its Open slate, M-A has plenty of opportunity to learn from the loss moving forward. While it would take a miracle for anyone other than Riordan to advance to the championship game, both the Bears and VC have an opportunity to position themselves for a higher seed in the NorCal bracket.
“We’ve got 12 quarters of basketball against three very good teams, and we’re just looking to really get ready for NorCal,” said M-A coach Craig Carson. “The PAL is great. It’s a power league and all, but it’s not teams like this. So we’ve got to get used to playing against bigger, stronger, faster guys. Stuff we got away with against some of the lesser teams, it’s not going to work against these teams. We’ve got to adapt to a new style of play.”
Valley Christian got double-digit scoring contributions from Clark (15) and Hampton (13), plus eight apiece from Bamisebi and Dennison. Jerry Williams led all scorers with 18 points for M-A.
For the Warriors, the late season was defined by some disappointing losses. VC, which has enjoyed a resurgent year overall, dropped its last two regular-season games to Riordan at home (83-36) and Bellarmine on the road (67-46).
Both are quality opponents. Riordan is the clear favorite to represent CCS in the NorCal championship, and Bellarmine is the No. 3 seed in Open.
But VC felt like it left a lot of meat on the bone in those games.
“We weren’t tough in those losses,” Harris said. “Coach and us, we decided to really lock in on ourselves, and we watched a lot of film. We were really lazy. So to come out here and show the team we are and be tough, it was great to see.”
Watching on Friday, it was hard to believe that Menlo-Atherton beat VC 73-60 in Atherton on Dec. 28. But a lot can change in two months – or this time of year, in a single game.
“It started in practice,” Harris said. “We had a great week of practice. Every day, we focused on toughness and getting it done. And it all showed tonight. That last loss at Bellarmine, we left a lot out there. We were all pretty disappointed in ourselves, and we just took it out in practice and in this game. We’re not going to let that happen again.”
