Following a loss to Corona Centennial over the weekend, the Lady Vikings bounced back with a 77-11 home win over Golden Valley and finished the first half of the Foothill League season unbeaten.
“I thought the girls, you know, picked it up in the second half, especially on the defensive end,” Valencia head coach Jared Honig said. “That’s what we were, like, focusing on, making sure that they weren’t getting easy looks and then just moving the ball on offense, finding the most open person and trying to knock down shots.”
For Valencia (16-4, 6-0), the win marks the fifth time the Vikings have scored 70-plus points in a Foothill League game this season. And in the first quarter against Golden Valley (10-9, 1-5), the Vikings looked poised for another big game offensively.
The Vikings scored 29 points in the opening frame, but in the second quarter, they were held to just 6 points.
Honig added after the game that the Vikings’ game plan is for the defense to complement the offense, and in the second quarter the team was having trouble creating opportunities from the defensive stops.
“I think of the second quarter, just our defense wasn’t quite strong,” he said. “We weren’t really getting in a passing lane fast, and offensively we’re just playing too slow.”
Coming out of halftime, the Vikings looked like their regular selves and outscored the Grizzlies, 31-2, in the third quarter.
Senior guard Cara McKell led the Vikings in scoring with 19 points and freshman Sophia Sarkar wasn’t too far behind as she dropped 18 points along with seven steals and three assists.
“I think we’re just talking about playing to our standards, no matter the opponent and trying to just play at our level and just move the ball and share the ball,” Honig said of the team’s offensive consistency. “We emphasize it every day. Like, we have a lot of talented players who just want to move the ball around, find the most open shot.”
The Vikings pick up league action again Tuesday on the road as the team matches up with the Hart Hawks.
The loss sets the Grizzlies back to 1-5 in league play and sixth in the standings.
The Grizzlies will look to bounce back on Friday against the West Ranch Wildcats at home with tip-off scheduled for 5 p.m.
After Tuesday night’s games, here are scores from around the Foothill League:
Hart 33, West Ranch 29: The Hawks (8-13, 3-3) completed the upset win over the West Ranch Wildcats (16-5, 2-4) at home at Hart High School.
The Wildcats had won eight of their last nine going into the matchup against the Hawks, and fall to fifth in the Foothill League standings.
With the win, the Hawks are at .500 in league play for the first time this season and fourth in the standings.
The Hawks will look to continue their winning ways on the road against Canyon on Friday while the Wildcats match up against the Grizzlies at Golden Valley.
Both games tip off at 5 p.m.
Canyon 62, Castaic 17: The Canyon Cowboys (11-10, 4-2) secured the road win over the Castaic Coyotes (4-12, 0-6)
The Cowboys improved to above .500 and third in the Foothill League standings.
The Coyotes will look to bounce back in league play on Friday at 5 p.m. on the road against the Saugus Centurions.
The Cowboys host the Hart Hawks at 5 p.m.
Photos below from Valencia’s win over Golden Valley:
Kamilla Basyrova (34) during the third quarter of Tuesday’s game at Valencia High School on Jan. 13, 2025. Habeba Mostafa/ The Signal
