Leland Estacio drives through a trio of Rams
Posted: Jan 09, 2020
The West Valley basketball team overcame a 32-point second half from Kobe Ordonio to hold off visiting Gavilan 90-87 in the Coast Conference opener Wednesday night.
The Vikings (10-6, 1-0 Coast-South) were outstanding in the opening half, leading by as many as 20 on their way to a 50-32 advantage at the break. WVC was up 13-11 at 15:30 when back-to-back threes from Devon Banks, a trio of twos from Ben Baker and a bucket from Adam Afifi fueled a 14-2 run that gave the Vikings a 27-13 lead with 11:57 left in the half.
After being held to only four points in the first half, Ordonio, who's 28.5 points-per-game is second in the CCCAA, caught fire. Personal runs of eight, nine, six and six points brought the Rams (5-12, 0-1) to within 88-85 with :12 to go.
Banks split a pair from the stripe at :22 and then drained two with 11 seconds left to make it 90-85. Gavilan had the ball under their basket with 1.8 to go after Kobe's brother Tahjae hit a layup and West Valley turned it over on a sloppy inbounds play. Leland Estacio stole the Ram inbounds pass to seal the fourth-straight win for the Vikings.
Baker paced the WVC scorebook with 25 points, while Afifi had 21. Banks and Sufyan Elkannan were in double figures with 12 and 11, respectively, while Ryan Hewitt chipped in with nine off the bench. Kobe Ordonio led the Rams with 36, while Tahjae Ordonio finished with 20 and George Carter had 14.
West Valley has a bye Friday and then travels to Hartnell Wednesday (1/15) for a 7pm game against the Panthers (4-12, 0-1).