WALNUT - In a game of runs in the 3C2A Men's Basketball Championship game, West Valley College came away with the biggest run of the day to pull off its first title in program history.
The 11-1 run to end the game gave the Vikings a 59-51 victory over College of the Sequoias on Sunday afternoon at Mt. San Antonio College to become just the fifth team in state history to finish the season undefeated with a 33-0 record.
The run was highlighted by two big defensive rebounds by All-Tournament West Valley Center Shakir Odunewu and a basket and two free throws by Tournament MVP Elijah Mahi.
"I remember coach told us it took us two years to win the state championship," Mahi said. "It was a lot of hard work, and I couldn't give enough thanks to coach Danny (Yoshikawa) and our assistant coaches.
Four of the five current Vikings starters were a part of the team that lost in last year's quarterfinal round.
The defense, of course, was a big part of the title for the Vikings with their height and Mahi accentuated that point of his teammates, saying, "We just stuck to our principles and locked in our defense and if we took our time, we could get whatever we wanted on offense."
The title game was the sixth for the Vikings, dating back to 1992. Three championship game appearances ('92, '95, 96) were under former coach and CCCMBCA Hall of Famer Bob Burton and Yoshikawa ('06, '22, '24).
"To be very honest with you, I don't think I'll know for another week," said Yoshikawa, of what the title meant to the school. "For me, it's long overdue. Our program has been an elite program for a long time. I think about all the players that came before this team and all of them who played under coach Burton."
Mahi ended up with a game-high 30 points for the Vikings while Odunewu added 13 and All-Tournament selection Jeremiah Dargan had nine. Mahi also had a big quarterfinal game with 26 points.
"I'm super excited and (darn), I mean 33-0, an unbelievable season, making history for my teammates, I'm just happy right now," Dargan said.
COS was led by sophomore guard Jose Cuello, an All-Tourney selection, with a team-high 27 points (10-22 FGM-A), along with Alex Argandar's 12 points.
Also named to the All-Tourney team from COS was sophomore forward Cameron Clark.
The Vikings' height contributed to a game-high 24 points in the paint and 19 points off turnovers.
In the early portion of the first half, West Valley came out on fire with a 13-5 advantage. The run was highlighted by three baskets by Mahi and a 3-pointer by Ragen.
"It feels great," said Ragen, of the perfection put up by the Vikings. "Genuinely, I think anything else I think I would have been more surprised, and we earned this (championship)."
COS answered with a spurt of its own with a 10-2 run to take its first lead, 17-15, on two free throws by Argandar with 5:33 left in the opening half. Nesbit started the run with a long 2-point basket and Jaylon Lee added two baskets.
The Giants led by a point at the intermission, 27-26.
Mahi led all scorers with 17 (6-9 FGM-A) first-half points for West Valley, while Cuello led the Giants with 15, which included three 3-pointers.
The Vikings started fast after the intermission with an 11-1 run highlighted by a dunk by Mahi to open the half.
Argandar broke the run for the Giants with two consecutive 3's in just over a minute and Cuello added another trey for a 11-0 run of their own to take a 39-37 lead with 10:38 left.
After the 14-1 run by the Giants, Dargan hit a 3-pointer to close within a point, 42-41, with 6:22 remaining.
ALL-3C2A STATE TOURNAMENT TEAM
MVP-Elijah Mahi, West Valley
Jeremiah Dargan, West Valley
Shakir Odunewu, West Valley
Jose Cuello, COS
Cameron Clark, COS
Devon Malcolm, Yuba
Jeremiah Davis, Fullerton
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