VISALIA -- West Valley men's basketball took on by far the state's top offense and led early, but a run from Citrus near the end of the first half cemented Citrus' spot as one of the state's final four teams. The Vikings (24-7) faced the Owls (30-1) for the first time since the Final 8 in the 2021-22 season, falling 84-54.

The first possession of the game set the tone for each side. West Valley won the tip and had the games' opening possession, but tight Owl defense along the perimeter kept the ball out of the hands of West Valley's bigs, William Amoah and Caleb Asante. Sophomore guard CJ Willenborg dribbled out of a trap, but the Citrus defense was too tight, forcing a 30-second violation. On the other side, a Ryan Roth foul led to two free throws and the games' first points. Willenborg nailed a 15-foot jumper to even the game for the Vikings. JJ Sanchez and a very slippery Leo Ricketts got open and hit 3's as Citrus jumped out to a 10-4 lead.

But the Vikings, with Willenborg on a mission to keep his time at West Valley alive, scored the games' next seven points. Willenborg hit a layup and threaded the needle to a cutting Amoah before hitting a stepback 3 to give the Vikings their first lead of the game. From there, the teams went back and forth, with another Willenborg 3 giving the Vikings a one-point lead with 12:22 left in the first half. 

David Manea was stellar early for the Vikings and looked like he had some extra juice after a difficult start to the postseason. With 10:29 to go in the first half, Manea hit a fadeaway basket that put the Vikings up 21-20, their final lead of the game. Manea finished with 11 points, second on the team, and chipped in a pair of rebounds.

From there, Citrus took control of the game, closing the half on a 24-5 run, with much of the damage coming from the free throw line. West Valley exited the half trailing by 18. Early in the second, a layup from Rockwell Reynolds pushed the Citrus lead to 20, which the Owls wouldn't give up the rest of the way.

Willenborg continued to push in the second half, finishing tied for the game-high with 16 points while hitting three of West Valley's five 3's. 

Still, against a Citrus offense that averages over 100 points per game, West Valley couldn't escape a night where it shot just 32.4% from the field and made just five 3's. Four Owls (Amiri Meadows, JJ Sanchez, Dev Hamilton and Leo Ricketts) scored in double figures. 

The season ends for the Vikings in Visalia, about 200 miles from the friendly confines of Bob Burton Court on the campus of West Valley College. For the large, valuable sophomore class of Willenborg, Amoah, Asante, Aaron Biebel, Ryan Roth and Bryce Buchanan, their contributions did not go unnoticed.

Willenborg, a 6-foot-3 sophomore from Folsom, had the ability to completely take games over with his feel for the soft spots of the defense and a killer three-point shot. Head coach Danny Yoshikawa continued to acknowledge him as one of the best passers in the state, a facet that only grew as the year went on.

Amoah, who transferred from Shasta College, faced the unenviable task of having to play a very different role with fewer touches in his one season in Saratoga. He took it in stride, finishing his year second all-time in single-season offensive rebounding while transforming his game to become a well-rounded defender.

Asante, a true local-product from Leigh High, is one of the top all-around players in recent memory. A two-time member of the Coast-South First Team, Asante's soft touch in the post and heads-up play as a facilitator was one of the top driving factors in the Vikings' two victories of the postseason.

The Vikings' may have felt Biebel's absence most in the trials and tribulations of the regular season. The reigning Coast-South Defensive Player of the Year missed the early portion of West Valley's conference slate. Multiple Vikings have talked about how learning from Biebel and Asante, also injured around the same time, helped the team get better as a whole. Biebel returned in the final regular season game of the year, hitting a pair of 3's aganist Gavilan and drilled one in the loss to Citrus as well.

Yoshikawa raved of Roth's work ethic in the offseason, and it paid off in the winter. A year removed from averaging two points per game, Roth became a lethal three-point shooter and averaged double-figures in conference play. After he started the season on the bench, Roth became an invaluable part of West Valley's starting five in the second half of the season.

Buchanan, named to the All-Freshman team in 2024-25, was a rock-solid figure and the steadying force of the Vikings' younger second-unit. From the opening tip to the final minute against Citrus, Buchanan was the most vocal on the bench while diving for loose balls in the games' waning minutes. Even when the game was over, Buchanan clapped it up on the floor, congratulating his teammates on their season.

Next comes a reset for the Vikings. Basketball will be quiet the rest of the school year before fall ball kicks off in September. The six, core pieces who helped establish the Vikings' winning culture a year removed from an undefeated, state championship run, will be replaced by a new batch of student-athlees with the same goal in mind -- a state championship. For Yoshikawa, his next win will be his 300th split between two tenures at West Valley. The road for a second state championship waits for the 2026-27 season.