Valley’s girls rally for win
When his team fell behind 17-0 in its Northeast League showdown at Eldorado on Wednesday, Valley girls basketball coach Barney Holmes wasn’t worried.
Neither was Vanessa Corona, and it showed.
Corona scored 17 points to rally the Vikings to a 57-49 win. Valley outscored Eldorado 55-32 after the first quarter.
“I wasn’t nervous,” said Corona, a senior forward who also grabbed 10 rebounds. “We were playing very poor defense in the first quarter, so I knew we could come back.”
Corona snapped Eldorado’s string of 17 consecutive points to open the game with a short jump shot in the lane in the final minute of the first period.
Later, Iris Barahona hit a baseline jumper and came up with a steal and layup in transition to help Valley close the half on a 7-0 run.
The Vikings went on to outscore the Sundevils 25-12 in the third quarter and never trailed in the fourth.
“We were getting open looks, and I said, 'You’ve got to keep shooting the ball,’ ” Holmes said of the rally.
Jessica Walton added 13 points for Valley (6-8, 4-1), and Barahona scored nine.
Sabrina Evans had 10 of her 21 points in the first quarter, and Gianna Lafayette scored 16 for Eldorado (4-10, 2-2).
The Sundevils got within 49-46 late in the fourth, but the Vikings put the game away with a quick 6-1 run.
Eldorado was shut out from 3-point range and shot 5-for-17 at the free-throw line.
“Their players really stepped up their game in order to shut our players down,” Eldorado coach Dorothy Kendrick said.
