The top high school basketball scorer in the nation was in town Friday night, but his efforts were not nearly enough against a charged up Valley Christian team.

The Lions of Roseville’s Valley Christian Academy put themselves in position to play for a league title with a convincing 99-70 win over Robbie Lemons and Sacramento Country Day. Lemons had to work for every one of his 37 points against a swarming VCA defense, but managed to hit his season average on the strength of nailing 19-of-20 free throws.

“Robbie is such a great player,” said Valley Christian coach Brad Gunter. “We wanted to get up in his shirt and make him work hard. Our traps on him were not designed to steal the ball, but to force him to give it up. He is really an unselfish player.”

Senior Rob Frank did much of the heavy lifting in the first half as he took the assignment on Lemons. The 6-foot-4 guard was the only Lion starter not to score in double figures, but his nine steals told the story of his dominating performance.

“Rob had his best defensive game of the year tonight,” Gunter said. “He and Stanley Winters were difference-makers.”

It was Winters who seized control of the game in the first half. His pressure on the ball and in pushing it at the Cavaliers set a tone in the early going. The VCA point guard scored 10 points and added four rebounds, four steals and two assists before intermission.

Before foul trouble got him, Jesse Peters was a major force in the paint for Valley Christian with eight first quarter points. Much of his work came as he worked the offensive glass.

While leading scorer Ryan Cordell struggled with his shot in the initial stages of the game, his teammates delivered.

“We have been working hard to make sure that we are not the Ryan Cordell show,” Gunter said. “He gets out there with Lemons and wants to match points with him. He was able to do that earlier at their place. Tonight, once we convinced him to let his guys do it, his game took off.”

Cordell did not score in the initial stanza, but in the second, as VCA exploded its advantage from six points at the quarter break to 54-30 at the half, he dropped in nine points.

Sophomore guard Jason Gish scored seven before the break, and Zach Stoever, who also did a ton of work on the offensive window, scored nine with three offensive boards.

As Cordell picked up his offensive game, along with Gish, the Lions roared away from Sac Country Day, and when JV call-up Kris Kobzeff scored a lay-up and drew a foul in the closing minute, he had a chance to take his team to the century mark. The charity toss bounced away, leaving the final margin at 29 points.

As expected, Lemons filled the stat sheet with 37 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots for the Cavaliers. Richard Walter added 14 points and seven boards for Sac Country Day (7-5 in the SMAL, 16-6 overall).

Cordell finished the game with 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead six Lions in double figures. Gish scored 16, while both Winters and Peters tossed in 12. Peters also snagged eight boards. Stoever and Orest Shaynyuk each tallied 10 points for VCA.

The Lions (11-1, 21-4) travel to Yuba City to take on Faith Christian (2-9, 5-13) Tuesday night before returning home to close out the season against league-leading Bradshaw Christian (12-0, 19-6) next Friday night. First place in the SMAL and also a possible No. 1 seed in the Division V playoffs should be on the line against a team that VCA has struggled against.

“This was a really big win for us,” Gunter said. “We’re not looking past Faith, but this sets up a big one for next Friday night. We’ll have to see if we can ignore the name on the front of their shirts and play our game.”