Fresh off their third-place finish in San Fernando Valley Invitational, the Grizzlies (10-1) took control early.

"We try to compete against us," said Golden Valley head coach Chris Printz. "It's been our mantra all year."

Though not in danger of losing control, the Grizzlies became lackadaisical coming out of halftime.

However, junior Erick Serrano's consistent effort kept the team pushing on both ends of the floor.

Despite only scoring five points, the 6-foot-3-inch forward crashed the boards, forced turnovers and opened up second-chance points.

But he still believes there is room for improvement.
"We could play better," Serrano said. "We have to get into the passing lanes."

Golden Valley closed up their defense and put the game away.

The Nitros (5-4) were able to go on small runs, but could not establish anything permanent.

Senior guard David Mansuryan scored 17 points in a losing effort.
Trevor Wiseman and Maverick Ahanmisi both posted 20 points to lead the way for the Grizzlies.

Wiseman used his 6-foot-6-inch frame to record another double-double adding 11 rebounds, while Ahanmisi hit five 3-pointers to go along with six assists.

Golden Valley senior Stevie Thornton scored nine points, including a deep 3-pointer near mid-court to end the first quarter.

Overpowering Glendale throughout, Nitros head coach Steve Snodgress merely sat back and watched in the second half.

"We weren't ready to play mentally and physically," Snodgress said. "We haven't been together for a couple of days (because of the holiday). I'm not going to use it as an excuse because everybody was. We just got beat by a much better team."

Because of Golden Valley's dominance, Printz was able to go to his bench early.

By the end of the day, 11 different Grizzlies got into the scoring column.

Golden Valley will try to build off the victory when it plays Righetti at 3 p.m. today at Hart High.

pputignano@the-signal.com