By Brandon HENSLEY

The road-weary Falcons ultimately came up short in the CIF Southern Section playoffs, but a return home for the first round of the Division III State tournament proved to be comforting.

Crescenta Valley High basketball’s team made history on Tuesday night, as the Falcons won a state playoff game for what is most likely the first time in the program’s history. Their 59-44 win was convincing against Bakersfield High School, where once again Tyler Carlson led the team with 19 points. The defense was tough, and the offense seemed to make all the right adjustments, especially in the second half, where one play out of a timeout resulted in a perfect screen for Carlson, who unleashed a swish from the top of the key. Head Coach Shawn Zargarian and assistant celebrated in a demonstrative hand slap.

The mood in the locker room after the game was presumably better than it was on Feb. 16, when the boys lost in the CIF Division II-A semifinals to Colony, ending their hopes of a CIF championship.

It was the third straight road game in the playoffs for the team, who came up on the wrong side of coin flips, forcing them to go on the road to Culver City, Compton, and finally Colony.

Tonight, the Falcons will play Santa Barbara, but will once again be home, as they are the higher seed, which is how it works in state. Game time is set for 7 p.m.

Zargarian called it frustrating for his fourth-seeded team to play three straight road games in CIF. “I told everybody we might as well have been an at-large team,” Zargarian said. “What was the point of fighting hard to be a fourth-seeded team?”

CV was able to get several game tapes of Bakersfield, which gave them enough footage to prepare for the Drillers’ “uptempo, fast-trapping style defense,” said Zargarian, who received a hug and congratulations from his former coach John Goffredo after the game. Zargarian was on the 1994 team that played in the CIF Southern Section finals at the Honda Center, which was then the Pond in Anaheim.

Twenty-five years later, and the Falcons have not been back to the finals. Zargarian coached CV to the semifinals in 2012 and 2013. Both games were on the road, and both were losses, which followed was the same script as this year.

At least there was Tuesday, where Zargarian now stands alone as the only CV coach to record a state win.

Zargarian, as he’s done in the past, said it’s not about him, but the players, who don’t have as much time to be at CV as he does.

“I told the players I can be here another 15, 20 years, but you’re only here for a little bit. They have a short window. For them, it’s such a big deal,” he said.

What he likes about this team is the chemistry the boys have, something he noted hasn’t been this strong in a several seasons. It also has responded to the staff’s defensive plans. CV likes to press, and get after the other team up and down the court.

“This group is the first group in a long time that’s bought into our defensive system,” Zargarian said. “If everyone hasn’t bought in, it’s a challenging system, but they’ve bought in and I think that’s the big difference.”

Another big difference this year is the play of Carlson, a junior who has made a name for himself offensively. His three-point shooting prowess is reminiscent of players Cole Currie and Dylan Kilgore, All-Pacific League and All-CIF Falcons from the early 2010s.

“Players as talented as Tyler … we let them go,” Zargarian said. “He knows that he has the green light that he can shoot it from wherever. We completely trust what he’s going to do.”

Carlson is one of the leaders who has helped CV become a bit of a surprise team this season. Zargarian’s assistants told him early on they had a feeling this team was special. He resisted that thought for a while, but after a slow start in league, he soon realized his staff was right. For him, it comes back to the chemistry.

“Their general poise,” he noted. “They never seem rattled. They’re all very even-keeled and locked in to what they’re doing.”

  Brandon Hensley