Vaqs’ youth shows in loss

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — During some stretches of Saturday night’s game, the Glendale Community College men’s basketball team looked like a crisp and athletic squad. During other times, the Vaqueros looked like an inexperienced and young team.

Unfortunately for the Vaqueros, the latter was true more often against Antelope Valley College in the third-place game of the Vaquero Classic.

Glendale college started flat and never led, falling to Antelope Valley, 70-67, at home.

“Lack of focus [and] youth,” said Vaquero Coach Brian Beauchemin when asked why his team struggled at the outset of Saturday’s game, when it trailed by 16 with 10 minutes remaining in the half.

Beauchemin also added “an inability to get over [Friday’s] loss,” against El Camino College to that list.

He could have also mentioned that his team gave up far too many easy baskets against Antelope Valley, which entered the tournament as the top-ranked team in the Community College Basketball Coaches Assn. and Community College Sports Information Directors rankings before it lost to College of the Canyons on Friday night.

Antelope Valley (13-4) started the game by making nine of its first 11 shots to take an early lead. Glendale college (8-6), ranked 10th in the same poll, also missed seven of its first 12 shots.

“We gave them too much of a head start,” Beauchemin said.

After scoring 31 points in the first 10 minutes, Antelope Valley was held to eight the rest of the half.

“We did a decent job of storming back,” Beauchemin said.

Glendale college’s Zareh Zargaryan, Kevin Dancer and Markus Monroe led the comeback.

Zargaryan finished with a team-high 13 points, Dancer had 12 points to go with seven rebounds and Monroe had 11 points.

Guard Lanval Gordon also added 10 points, and Jose Garcia and Curtis Leslie each had seven points for the Vaqueros, who feature 10 freshmen and just two sophomores.

For all of their efforts, though, Glendale college couldn’t take a lead.

But it sure did get close.

The Vaqueros cut Antelope Valley’s lead to one on three occasions in the second half, but the Marauders responded with clutch free throws down the stretch.

“Two of our losses this year have come because of missed free throws, so for us to win by free throws at the end [makes me] very happy,” said Antelope Valley Coach Dieter Horton, who received strong contributions from JaVaughn Espritt (13 points), Mahamoud Diakite (12 points), Robert Arnold (12 points) and Jerome Morton (10 points and a game-high eight rebounds).

Dancer’s off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer hit the back of the rim, giving Antelope Valley the win.

“We couldn’t get over the hump, but we’ll grow from this,” said Beauchemin, whose team will next play East Los Angeles College at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. “We really battled and we didn’t back off.”