Antelope Valley Takes Step Toward Elusive Golden Title

LANCASTER — Le’Tre Kelly was playing as if he was trying to get a monkey off his back, and, for that matter, so was Marc Buckner.

That was good news for the Antelope Valley High and bad for Palmdale, which got blown out, 88-62, Tuesday night in a Golden League game at Antelope Valley.

Kelly, a 6-foot-6 senior, had 20 points and 10 rebounds.

“I had a slow first half and I knew we had to pick it up and put the game away,” said Kelly, whose 10 points and four rebounds in the fourth quarter helped the Antelopes (16-6, 4-0), ranked second in the region by The Times, put an exclamation point on the victory. Antelope Valley outscored Palmdale, 34-15, in the final quarter.

Antelope Valley took a big toward its first league title since 1989, but its players still remember how they slipped from first to a second-place tie with Palmdale down the stretch last year.

“We’ve been waiting for this game,” said Buckner, who had 16 points and 14 rebounds in ending what teammates and Coach Tom Mahan called a month-long slump.

“Tonight he was coachable and he worked hard,” Mahan said of Buckner, a 6-6 senior. “He’s been turning the ball over and not bringing it down.”

Palmdale (13-8, 3-1), which shot 48%, looked as if it would battle Antelope Valley to the wire after trailing, 54-47, at the end of three quarters.

But the Falcons collapsed after guard Markus Carr (19 points) was ejected along with Antelope Valley’s Ziaire Williams after a fourth-quarter altercation.

Carr and Williams will be suspended for Friday’s games.

“That wasn’t a real smart maneuver,” Palmdale Coach Gary Phelps said of Carr, a senior bound for Cal State Northridge. “But we got outrebounded and outhustled, and we can’t match up with them.”

Antelope Valley shot 50%, made 13 of 15 shots in the fourth quarter, and held a 36-21 edge in rebounding.

After not being able to shake the Falcons in the first half, the Antelopes finally blew it open by scoring 16 unanswered points in the final quarter.

“We turned on the juice a little bit,” Buckner said. “If we can control the game for four full quarters, we won’t get beat.”