Valencia girls basketball struggles in loss to La Salle in Division 1 final

ONTARIO – Valencia came into the CIF Southern Section Division 1 girls basketball championship having been battle tested throughout the season. The Vikings were 28-4 overall and went undefeated — 12-0 — in the tough Foothill League.

But the Vikings came up short in the title game, losing to La Salle 51-35 on Friday night at Toyota Arena.

The Lancers’ strong interior offense proved to be too much for Valencia.

The Vikings led by four points early in the first quarter, but that would be their biggest lead of the game.

La Salle was able to score 22 points in the paint, largely through the efforts of Aislin Tamez Torres, Emily Fong and Riley Higgins, who combined for 37 points.

Senior forward Kiera McLaughlin was the standout for Valencia, as she had a team-high 11 points and eight rebounds.

The Vikings had 20 turnovers in the game.

It was a disappointing showing for Valencia, which all season had been led to victories by sophomore wing Kamilla Basyrova and freshman point guard Sophia Sarkar.

Basyrova went into the final averaging 19.8 points per game and shooting 44 percent on 3-pointers. Sarkar was putting up 9.6 points per contest along with 3.3 assists and 2.5 steals per game.

Valencia head coach Jared Honig complimented the two players postgame, and he said he was optimistic about the program’s future.

“They’re extremely hard workers,” he said of Basyrova and Sarkar. “They put in a ton of time with us and outside of what we’re doing, so it’s no surprise that they’re able to do what they do on the court. So I think as long as they keep working, as long as our team sticks together, I think we’ll be great moving forward.”

The loss snapped a 13-game winning streak for the Vikings. They went into Friday’s game with their last loss being a 60-57 setback against Corona Centennial on Jan. 10.

Valencia will continue its season in the CIF state playoffs that begin Tuesday.

“I’m super proud of everything they accomplished,” Honig said.

“I thought they competed hard tonight, just didn’t get it done. But just really proud of them and we’re gonna look to keep playing as long as possible in the state playoffs.”