"They did and they started to get a lot of easy shots."
It took a little while, as the Falcons didn't take their first lead until a layup by Cassie Pappas put them up 11-10 with 8:30 left in the first half.
That proved to be the turning point from where Crescenta Valley would embark on a 14-4 scoring run over the next seven minutes.
Pappas put the Falcons up 14-12 at the 5:46 mark with a three-pointer from the right wing. Jackie Springer followed with a put back on the next possession.
Pappas made a short jumper on a feed from Candice Chessum, before Chessum then hit a pull-up jumper of her own from the left side to go up 20-12.
"We missed a lot of easy ones, but for the most part I felt like we hit the shots when we needed to," Perez said.
Leading 27-16, Crescenta Valley opened the second half with turnovers on its first three possessions, but gave away no resulting points.
Instead, the Falcons widened their lead on a layup by Pappas to finish a breakaway ignited by a Lorrin Cheeney block.
Nearly six minutes had elapsed before Golden West scored its first field goal of the half to make the score 31-18.
Meredith Mathis cut the Falcons' lead to 31-22 with a layup, but Chessum answered with a jumper to begin another 6-0 run for Crescenta Valley.
Chessum found a cutting Pappas for a quick layup and a 35-22 lead, before Gaby Vargas stretched the lead to its largest, 15, with a 10-foot jumper from the baseline.
"Our pressure man-to-man defense really got to them," Perez said of the team's strong finish. "Just keeping the pressure on them and running them was good."
Pappas led the Falcons with 21 points and five rebounds. Chessum scored six points, pulled down five rebounds and played well off of Pappas.
She found the sophomore-to-be for several open plays en route to finishing with a game-high six assists.
Cheeney had five points and five rebounds and Shayna Svihovec added three points .
