With 4:25 left in Tuesday's game between Garfield and Valley Christian, Zack Smith drove to the hoop for the G-Men, made a layup and was fouled. The layup gave the G-Men their first lead, at 42-41. The free throw gave the G-Men their largest lead.
Within three minutes, the G-Men had to start intentionally fouling to stop the clock after surrendering a critical 10-2 run to the Eagles.
Valley Christian held the lead this time, beating Garfield, 55-49.
The Eagles defense was particularly impressive, allowing only four G-Men to score. VCS held Garfield to five first-quarter points, and Eagles center Emmanuel Armour ended the game with six blocks.
"We’re unselfish, we’re athletic, and yes, we’re long," Valley Christian coach Dolph Carroll said. "We can’t help that we are athletic and long, but we were playing as a team. We weren’t selfish. We tried to do the very best we could with (Ryan) Brown and (Zack) Smith, but they’re great. They’re unbelievable. And they were hitting shots."
"Height is not something we have in bundles this year," Garfield coach Andrew Olesky said. "Valley Christian has height, athleticism and they’re well-coached. Early on I thought we got looks close to the basket, but the height bothered us and forced us into misses. That stuff adds up."
Brown and Smith accounted for 41 of the G-Men's 49 points. Brown had 19, including four three-pointers. Smith did a lot of his work early, scoring 12 in the second quarter. This included the G-Men’s first seven points of the second.
"He’s an energy guy," Olesky said. "I think after he got going we really picked ourselves up and gravitated to that energy. He and Ryan are the leaders, and you could see when we were coming back, we would give up a little run, but Zack and Ryan kept us close."
Offensively for the Eagles, the plan was balancing the attack. Eight Eagles scored, and five had six or more points. Their leading scorer was Milan Square with 16. He had five of his points after the G-Men took the lead late, helping Valley Christian pull away. Melvin Neail had 11, Jordan Trowers had nine, Jamynk Jackson had six and Armour had six points to go with his six blocks.
"We really just took what we could get," Carroll said. "We don’t play against zones too much, but we knew they liked to run one. We were fortunate to hit open shots.
"I really think they did a good job running in transition," Carroll said. "I think it was a very well-coached game. Andy does a great job with those kids. They play hard every night. It’s a great league. It’s a lot of fun."