Crescenta Valley Stands Tallest

THOUSAND OAKS —  Against an opponent with a great height advantage, the Crescenta Valley High girls’ basketball team nonetheless stood tallest at the end.

Michelle Greco had 23 points and nine rebounds and Sinnamonn Garrett had 18 points and 16 rebounds, and the Falcons escaped with a 62-55 victory over Arroyo Grande in the championship game of the Thousand Oaks tournament Friday night.

Arroyo Grande (12-2) gave Crescenta Valley (10-1) all it could handle before Garrett made two free throws and Greco, the tournament’s most valuable player, made a basket with one minute to play for a 61-55 lead.

“Every team’s going to come out gunning for us, and we have to step up to the challenge,” Guard Tara Gregory said. “We did that.”

The Falcons had to overcome the Eagles’ lineup, which features four starters 5 feet 11 or taller.

Arroyo Grande’s 6-3 1/2 center Stephanie Brown scored 17 points and had 13 rebounds. The Eagles also got 15 points and 12 rebounds from Kristen O’Halloran.

After trailing at halftime, 37-30, Arroyo Grande went on a 13-2 run at the start of the third quarter, turning the deficit into a 43-39 lead behind the play of O’Halloran, who scored eight points in the spurt and 10 in the quarter.

Crescenta Valley rallied to tie the score, 47-47 and 49-49, before Arroyo Grande took a 51-49 edge on a rebound basket by reserve Missy Clayton.

That proved to be the Eagles’ last lead. After making nine of 12 shots in the third quarter, they missed their 11 shots from the field in the final quarter.

Crescenta Valley made 20 of 27 free throws, including four of six in the last four minutes. Arroyo Grande was nine of 16 from the free-throw line.

In other tournament games:

Chino 63, Thousand Oaks 34--Melissa Simonetti and Liz Nesbitt scored nine points apiece for Thousand Oaks (7-3) in the third-place game.

Chino (8-6) broke open the game in the second quarter, when Thousand Oaks made seven of 12 free throws but only one basket, by Nicole Vasquez.

Kate Humphries scored 27 points and Allyson Alhadeff added 13 for Chino.

North Hollywood 54, Bakersfield 46--The Huskies made nine of 10 free throws in the final 2:27 to win the fifth-place game.

Claudia Villa had 17 points and nine rebounds for North Hollywood (13-1).

Markia Derby scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Tashean Thomas added 10 points for the Huskies.

Oxnard 47, Agoura 46--Michelle Morgan and Tina Samaniego each scored 10 points for the Oxnard (2-8) in the ninth-place game.

Westlake 56, Village Christian 32--Tawny Thorp scored 25 points, including 13 of Westlake’s 15 first-quarter points in the 11th-place game.

Heather Woods added 10 points for Westlake (4-8).