Tuesday afternoon's game between West Valley and East Los Angeles lived up to its billing, with the Huskies taking a tightly-contested 81-78 decision over the Vikings. Two of the top teams in California fought for 40 minutes in front of a large crowd that got its money's worth.

Elijah Mahi scored ten of WVC's first 13 points and a ferocious rebound dunk from Baron Bracey gave the Vikings (13-2) a 24-20 lead at 8:24. The Huskies (9-2) then went on a 19-13 run behind eight points from Gregory Melvin to close out the first half with a 39-37 lead. Mahi paced all first-half scorers with 17 points and the Vikings were a perfect 11-11 from the charity stripe.

ELAC opened the second half the same way it ended the first, as they outscored WVC 14-6 to go up 53-43 at the 14:16 mark. Their lead would expand to 74-60 at 5:36, but the Vikings mounted a furious rally, outscoring the Huskies 18-7 in the last 5:36 and closing to within 78-74 on a Dargan trey with :44 to go. A pair of free throws from JT Langston at :23 and one from Donjae Lindsey at :11 ended the WVC threat.

Mahi led all scorers with 25 points, including a 7-7 day from the line. Dargan followed with 18 points, 14 in the second half, while Bracey hit for 12. Melvin led the Huskies with 16.

The Vikings have the holidays off before closing out 2022 with a New Year's Eve contest at Skyline (6-5). Tipoff is slated for 3:00pm.