MENTONE - It doesn't get much closer than Valley and Rochester this year. Of the four games that the junior varsity and varsity teams have played against each other, the most lopsided score was the Zebras 45-42 win in the junior varsity game on Friday night.

In that game, Valley had two chances to tie the game with three-pointers, but came up short.

The varsity game was even closer as Maurice Looman scored on a layup with one second to play to give Valley a 67-66 win at home. The win pushes the Vikings above .500 in the Three Rivers Conference at 3-2 on the year.

"We need to sneak another one out somehow conference wise," Valley head coach Gregg Sciarra said. "It's a good accomplishment for these guys. (Rochester) is one of our big rivals and it's nice to make up for that loss in the Holiday Tournament."

Since dropping a one-point decision to Rochester in the Plymouth Holiday Tournament, Valley has been playing better with a record of 3-3 after the win against the Zebras.

JayDee Parker played like he has been of late with 19 points and 12 rebounds. One thing he did do better was shoot free throws. A 30-percent free-throw shooter this year, Parker made 8 of 10 from the line.

Brandon Eaton continued to play well. After his triple-double last weekend, the sophomore scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds along with three assists.

Valley and Rochester were tied at 45-45 heading into the fourth quarter and were still tied at 57-57 with 1:54 to play. Rochester took a two-point lead on a Seth Wilson jumper before Parker came down and knocked in a three-pointer as Valley went ahead 60-59. Wilson then hit another jumper and took a steal from Jarvis Shepherd for a layup to give Rochester a 63-60 lead with 36 seconds to play.

Valley came right back six seconds later with a layup from Looman and Kyle Schnitz scored on a free throw to give Rochester a 64-62 advantage. With 11 seconds to play, Eric Love canned his only three-pointer of the game to give Valley a one point lead.

However, the Zebras threw a long pass to Schnitz, who beat Valley down the floor for an easy layup and a 66-65 lead with seven seconds to play.

After two timeouts, Valley inbounded the ball to Eaton, who took the ball past the midcourt line and ran into a trap. He found Looman cutting to the hoop for an easy basket with two seconds to play, just as the play was set up to be run. Rochester called a timeout but its halfcourt heave came up off target.

"We have a series of deadball plays that we run," Sciarra said. "We practice those every Thursday. Everything had to go right there. (Eaton) had to go as fast as he could while staying under control and he hit our cutter in the nick of time."

Valley had four players in double figures in scoring. After Eaton and Parker, Looman scored 12 points and Love added 10. Rochester, though, shot 52 percent from the floor and got countless layups and short jumpers.

"At times neither team could stop either team," Sciarra said. "Our guards need to stop the penetration and we need to help and recover down low. (Rochester) did a nice job, but we could have done better."

Valley fell behind early after jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Rochester went on a 16-2 run to take a 10 point advantage. The lead went as high as 11 points at 26-15 with 6:26 to play in the second quarter. But the Vikings scored the next nine points to make it a close ball game and it was tight from that point on. Neither team led by more than six points the rest of the way.

"It's always scary in the first quarter to get a big lead," Sciarra said. "It's not that we tell them not to get a big lead, but it seems so easy to scratch back as opposed to maintaining that lead. Sometimes it just works against you."

Valley (4-8, 3-2) will host South Bend Washington today. [[In-content Ad]]