West Valley overwhelmed Sacramento City 82-67 in Saturday's NorCal championship to earn its third consecutive trip to the CCCAA Men's Basketball Championship tournament. The top-seeded Vikings (30-0) scored 41 in each half to run away from the #7 Panthers (26-4).
West Valley spotted SCC a 5-0 lead to open the game, but quickly recovered to grab its first lead at 15-13 on a Noah Yang bucket with just over 13 minutes left. WVC held the Panthers to a single basket inside the four-minute mark for a 41-31 advantage at halftime.
The Panthers got points from just two players – Sydney Duplessis (16) and Dajon Lott (13) – in the first half, while the Vikings spread the wealth among seven players. Elijah Mahi canned 14 in the first half, while Shakir Odunewu had eight.
Mahi put up 12 more after the break on his way to a game-high 26, and WVC outscored SCC 41-36. Odunewu finished with 14, while Baron Bracey had 12. Jeremiah Dargan scored nine and Yang had a loud eight.
The Vikings earned the north's #1 seed and will open the state championship tournament Friday at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut against south #4 seed Cerro Coso (25-6). The winner will take on the winner of Friday's quarterfinal between #3 north seed Yuba (28-2) vs. #2 south San Diego City (26-4).
Other Friday games feature defending champion and south #1 Fullerton (26-4) against north #4 Cabrillo (25-5) and north #2 College of the Sequoias (25-5) vs. south #3 West Los Angeles (26-4).
Semifinal action is Saturday (3/16), with Championship Sunday set for 3:30pm.
Visit "Tournament Central" on the CCCAA website for game previews, tournament lodging and livestream information:
