Jake Davis picked the perfect time to have the best game of his West Valley career. The sophomore sharpshooter went off for 21 of his career-high 31 points in the second half to lead West Valley to a 72-66 3C2A Regional Final victory over Skyline Saturday night at Bob Burton Court. The Vikings now head to Mt. San Antonio College March 13-16 to defend their 2024 state title at their fourth-consecutive state championship tournament appearance.
The 2nd-seeded Vikings (27-3) had their hands full with No. 8 Skyline (23-7) from the opening tip. The Trojans hit a bucket on their first possession and held that 2-0 lead until Davis drained the first of his five three-pointers for a 3-2 WVC lead at 16:24. The teams traded baskets until CJ Willenborg and Robel Zemmo sparked a run that put the Vikings up 29-19 with three minutes to go in the half. Skyline stormed back with and-ones from Milandev Chatha and Nick Corbett and two Chatha threes to draw within 33-31 at the break.
After a back-and-forth opening to the second half, Joe Brown hit a three from the corner to cap a 16-8 run and boost WVC to a 49-39 lead at 11:47 . Skyline would not go away. A Corbett and-one and another Chatha three countered a Davis bomb and got the Trojans within a point at 52-51 with seven minutes left. Back-to-back Davis treys wowed the large, boisterous crowd and lifted the Vikings to a 58-51 advantage at 5:40. Another Trojan and-one, this time from Achilles Woodson at 2:27, narrowed WVC's lead to 65-60. But a huge Brown three from in front of the Viking bench made it 68-62 with :58 left. Davis was fouled twice and converted all four charity shots, the last two with :15 remaining to seal the victory.
Davis finished with the aforementioned 31 points, followed by 17 from Zemmo, nine - on three treys - from Brown, and seven from Willenborg. Chatha and Woodson paced the Trojans with 20 apiece, while Corbett had 17.
The Vikings will head south as the north's No. 2 seed. They'll be joined by No. 1 City College of San Francisco (29-1), No. 3 Las Positas (26-4) and No. 4 Cosumnes River (21-10). West Valley opens against south No. 3 San Bernardino Valley (26-5, which is making its 3rd state tournament appearance in four years. Other quarterfinal battles have CCSF taking on south No. 4 Cerritos (23-8), LPC against south No. 2 Citrus (28-2) and CRC battling south No. 1 Fullerton (28-3).
For full tournament information visit "Tournament Central" on the 3C2A website: https://www.cccaasports.org/sports/mbkb/Championships