In the Division 1 California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section championship against the La Salle Lancers, the Valencia Vikings fell short of winning the title in a 51-35 loss Friday night at the Toyota Arena in Ontario.
“I’m proud of our girls for competing all the way through to the final buzzer,” Valencia head coach Jared Honig said. “Obviously, LaSalle has a great team and credit to them for always being ready to play basketball.”
In the loss, the Lady Vikings only held the lead once, in the opening moments of the first quarter when Valencia led 6-2.
The 4-point lead was short-lived for the Lady Vikings as the Lancers outscored Valencia 15-8 in the first quarter. And the trend of poor shooting followed Valencia into the rest of the game.
In the second quarter, the Lady Vikings were outscored 10-4 and in the third quarter, 12-6.
After the game, Honig added that team shooting was uncharacteristic and said the Lancers outplayed his Lady Vikings the whole game as they couldn’t get back into rhythm.
“I was looking at the box score, and we had single-digit quarters, which is pretty atypical of us,” he said. “But again, just [La Salle] aggressiveness and physicality, we weren’t able to get to the hoop like we normally do.”
Throughout the game, the Lady Vikings shot 10-for-28 from the field and committed 20 turnovers. And across all four quarters, the Lady Vikings committed 20 turnovers compared to La Salle’s 7.
The Lancers took advantage of Valencia’s miscues and scored 22 points off the turnovers.
Valencia junior Keira McLauglin led all Valencia players in scoring with11 points and recorded two assists and one block. And out of the six players who appeared in the game, the only senior was guard Cara McKell, who recorded six points in the loss.
Honig added that this year’s team is young, and getting to play in the Division 1 championship is a testament to how resilient Valencia is.
“We’re a relatively young group to make it this far, so I’m just really excited for everyone who gets to come back and go through the process again,” he said. “So, we’re just going to keep doing what they’re doing, keep being them and we’ll be OK.”
Valencia’s season isn’t over as the Lady Vikings are scheduled to compete in the CIF state tournament, which is set to begin on Tuesday.
Although Honig added that they don’t know who and where they’ll be playing, he’s eager to get back on the court and have one last ride with this year’s team.
“A lot of times over the last couple of seasons losses have led us to be better than before,” he said. “So, I’ve just tried to use it as a springboard to just be better next time. I got to do a better job preparing for the team, moving forward. So, we’ll be ready to go with whoever we get matched up with for Tuesday.”
