No. 12 West Valley men's basketball pushed past a second-half run from a feisty Monterey Peninsula squad to capture its third conference victory of the year.

The Vikings (14-5, 3-1 Coast-South) have rebounded well from a difficult loss on the road to No. 18 San Jose City College, winning back-to-back games against Hartnell and the MPC Lobos (7-14, 2-3 Coast-South).

Monterey Peninsula came in a motivated squad after a 1-1 conference weekend and looked the part early on, taking the games' first lead on a Corvell Simmons midrange bucket. In the games first minutes, the Lobos had an offensive answer for everything the Vikings brought offensively, and a stop for every halt the Vikings made on the defensive end.

Continuing his role as an every-game starter with the injury to Caleb Asante, David Manea was the Vikings go-to scorer from the get-go. Monterey Peninsula stuck 6-foot-8 Marc Colton Mbayo on Manea early but switched to the 6-foot-6 Simmons, who brought more speed to try to catch up to Manea's smart movement off the ball. None of it mattered, as he hit his first three shots and gave West Valley six quick points.

Sophomore forward William Amoah was stellar as well, taking advantage of the Lobos' foul trouble by getting himself strong positioning in the paint and either getting to the free throw line or knocking down easy buckets. Until playing Monterey Peninsula, it had been a relatively quiet offensive stretch for Amoah, as he hadn't scored in double figures in four straight games. Still, he continued to attack around the rim and be a pest on the offensive boards. Entering the Monterey Peninsula game, Amoah was 19^th in the state in offensive rebounds, a tally he added three to against the Lobos while finishing with a game-high 18 points.

Simmons was there to match Amoah point-for-point early, finishing the first half along with guard Jaiden Sahota as the two Lobos in double figures. Conversely, the Vikings had a spread offense attack with no one really separating from the pack in terms of scoring production, as the Vikings led by seven at the halftime break.

Rejuvenated with some fresher bodies in the second half, the Lobos got out to an early scoring run and cut the deficit to just two with under ten minutes left. Viking guard CJ Willenborg, who to that point had been struggling on the offensive end, knocked down a couple of big 3's, while guards Ryan Roth and Antonio Kellogg Jr. did the same to create some cushion.

The Lobos made another strong push in the games' final minutes, but it was too little, too late for any true comeback hope after a Willenborg offensive rebound and putback shot with under 50 seconds to play made it an 11-point game.

Up next is a big-time test for the Vikings, taking on No. 27 Cabrillo on the road on Friday.