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VALENCIA — For three and a half quarters, a back-and-forth battle waged on the court between two familiar boys basketball teams.
Valencia and St. Bonaventure both laid it all out on the hardwood Tuesday night, with a trip to Sacramento to play for the CIF State Division IV championship on the line.
The clash continued into the final few minutes of the fourth quarter, when Vikings senior Jayden Ares put his team ahead by double digits with back-to-back 3-pointers, sealing a 72-58 victory in the Division IV Southern California Regional final.
“I was going to shoot it, I didn’t care who was in front of me, I was going to pull it. I had that mentality,” Ares said. “I told my teammates I’m going to spark it up right now.”
Valencia will face Half Moon Bay, the No. 10 seed in the Northern California bracket, in the CIF State Division IV championship game Saturday.
The clutch buckets by Ares were indicative of the way the game played out, with Valencia’s role players making huge plays throughout the evening.
Ares hit three 3-pointers, grabbed five rebounds and had two steals. Jacob Michel-Zavala scored eight points, including two 3-pointers. Jacob Mazy brought energy off the bench in limited minutes, crashing the glass and getting to the line.
“We put pressure on their role players to make plays and credit to their role guys, they hit shots,” St. Bonaventure head coach Wolfgang Wood said. “We made them work for it and that’s all I can ask from my guys. We battled. I think we were the team that gave them the best run in every game in the playoffs.”
Just 10 days ago, these teams squared off in the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA title game, which Valencia won 65-62.
In the first matchup between the teams, the Vikings relied heavily on their trio of stars, Kai Davis, Bryce Bedgood and Mikah Ballew.
All three players still made a significant impact…
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