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May 18, 2021
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Valencia girls’ basketball hands Hart first league loss in two years By Tyler Wainfeld Signal Staff Writer The Foothill League girls’ basketball title wasn’t won or lost on Friday, but the race to the finish did get much more exciting. The Hart Hawks traveled to Valencia looking to earn a season sweep over the Vikings and their 20th consecutive win in league action. Valencia freshman Kamilla Basyrova and the young Vikings ensured that didn’t happen. After an uneven start, the Vikings locked in, took the lead late in the first quarter and didn’t look back as they won at home, 53-48, to create a tie for first place with Hart atop the league standings. Basyrova led the Vikings (18-3, 6-1) with 20 points, going toe-to-toe with Hart (15-6, 6-1) star senior and Long Beach State commit Morgan Mack, who had 24 points, 12 of them in the fourth quarter as she tried to will her team to victory. “We wanted to win so bad, because we lost by 30 (in the other) game,” Basyrova said. “So, we wanted to prove that we're better.” While the jury is out on which team is truly better at this point — and that question may never be answered, unless the two teams meet in the postseason — they now have no margin for error as the Hawks look to capture a third consecutive league title and the Vikings seek their first since 2021. It’s the first win for Valencia over Hart since the final game of the 2021-22 season. “It was a big one,” said Valencia head coach Jared Honig. “But as we told the team after the game, today doesn't matter if we don't go take care of business (the rest of the way).” It looked like the Hawks would be running away with a win after just a couple minutes, leading 7-2. Mack hit an early 3-pointer, and Honig called a timeout to settle his players down. Once play resumed, Valencia went on an 11-4 run to end the opening frame, and the lead never changed hands again. “We just talked about staying aggressive and taking good shots and sticking to the plan and playing together,” Honig said. “I mean, we just took some bad shots and turned the ball over. I think we had three early turnovers, a couple bad shots. So just, if we just stick to our game plan and play together, I think we can beat any team.” Hart made it interesting in the third quarter when the Hawks made it a one-point game after senior Andrea Aina hit a putback attempt as part of her 12-point effort. But the Vikings responded with a 14-4 run to finish the third quarter and go up, 43-32. Sophomore Keira McLaughlin had six of her 14 points and two of her 3-pointers in that quarter. “Anytime you can get a 10- or 11-point cushion heading into the fourth quarter, then you just kind of have to maintain it and play solid enough to keep the lead,” Honig said. Mack, guarded mainly by Basyrova all night and held scoreless in the third quarter, did her best to bring Hart back into it. Her 12 points in the fourth helped to make it a one-possession game with just seconds to go, but Basyrova hit two clutch free throws to seal the win for Valencia. “It was tough,” said Hart head coach Jerry Mike. “The girls were a little down, you know, but they fought. They do their thing, they leave it all out there. They're disappointed, but we just talked about, it's just gonna make us a little stronger.” Basyrova said she didn’t realize that Mack, named this week as a McDonald’s All-American nominee, would be the one guarding her. “I feel like I knew I could score on her, and she's a good defender, so I had to use all my moves,” Basyrova said. Mack hit six free throws in the final period, driving to the basket with intensity and forcing Valencia to foul. “Morgan's not gonna give up,” Honig said. “She's gonna give everything and try to will her team to win. And that's what she tried … But I thought, overall, we did a great job on her, especially Kamilla.” Valencia junior Cara McKell had nine points, nine rebounds and five assists. Right there with Basyrova at the top of the Valencia scoring chart on the season, Honig said McKell did well to play a different sort of role against Hart. “She did a little bit of everything with, you know, offensive rebounds and putbacks, just getting to the basket and creating for others, taking a lot of attention and allowing Kamilla and Keira to have some solid opportunities,” Honig said. Senior Diana Reyes had four points, four rebounds and four assists for Valencia. She and the other Valencia starters played every minute on Friday. “I feel like we were prepared for that, because coach has been pushing all practice,” Basyrova said. Mike said the loss can be used as a reset point for the Hawks to get ready for the rest of the season. “That's what we're thinking,” Mike said. “We gotta dial it in. We gotta clean some things up. We gotta work on defense and just our ball movement. It’s definitely crunch time, and we're just gonna approach it that way. There's not a whole lot of margin for error.” Valencia now looks forward to hosting Saugus on Tuesday while Hart has its second league bye before hosting Golden Valley on Friday. Saugus (13-8, 4-3) beat Canyon (10-12, 4-3) on Friday, 58-52, to create a tie for third place in the league.

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