In a game that featured a combined 54 fouls, Simi Valley managed to earn a 70-54 victory against Crescenta Valley on Friday night in the Falcon Classic championship contest.
Crescenta Valley (2-2) lost in the tournament’s title game for a second consecutive season. The Falcons fell to Golden Valley last year.
The Falcons had 10 of their 32 fouls called in the first quarter, with three charged to forward Nick Dragovich and two each on guards Eric Yoo and Narbeh Ebrahamian and forward Brandt Bowers.
“It’s hard, especially in a physical game,” said Crescenta Valley fourth-year Coach Shawn Zargarian, whose team managed just 16 points in the game’s final 10 minutes. “You have to play through it.
“With all of the guys that we had in foul trouble, they did a good job of not picking up their fourth and fifth fouls. What you have to do is play and compete.”
Crescenta Valley, which opened the tournament with victories against South Pasadena and Chatsworth before losing to Flintridge Prep and Simi Valley, couldn’t control Simi Valley senior guard Brad Lewis. Lewis finished with a game-high 34 points and four steals and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. Lewis finished with 23 second-half points to deflate the Falcons, who got a team-high 24 points from Yoo and 14 points and six assists from Ebrahamian.
Yoo made his second three-pointer in less than a minute to knot the game at 38 with 4:10 left in the third quarter. However, Simi Valley ended the quarter on a 17-2 run to take a 55-40 lead.
“I think when we made our run in the third quarter, it took the wind out of our sails after we tied it up,” Zargarian said. “You also don’t want to lose the title game of your own tournament.”
Ebrahamian and junior forward Coltrane Powdrill were named to the all-tournament team.
