The Valley Christian Academy boys basketball team got its playoff quest off on the right foot Wednesday night.

The Lions (24-4) owned the backboards with a 38-20 rebounding advantage and rolled to a big first round win over Big Valley Christian out of Modesto, 75-46.

Senior forward Ryan Cordell led the charge with 19 points, but it was a true team effort that propelled VCA to victory. Twelve different lions scored points on the night and 37 of VCA’s points came from non-starters.

“Push tempo, play a lot of guys, and try to get their big guy in foul trouble,” was head coach Brad Gunter’s strategy going into the game. “I had a feeling they were going to come in and slow it down on us, and they did. So the concern wasn’t necessarily on the defensive end, it was to push the offensive end.”

Valley Christian’s quick tempo offense and aggressive defense threw Big Valley for a loop and kept them to just 13 first quarter points. Six different lions grabbed rebounds in the period with Cordell, senior center Jesse Peters, and senior forward Orest Shaynyuk grabbing two a piece.

Cordell, the foul-drawing machine, nailed six points from the charity stripe. Big Valley got big three-point shots from Corey Wells and Luke Lemings in the second quarter, but they were still down 34-23 at half.

VCA senior guard Stanley Winters came out on fire in the second half. Winters scored five points off two steals, and contributed seven total points for the third quarter. Cordell stayed consistent with seven points of his own. Shaynyuk grabbed three rebounds.

With a 54-33 lead going into the fourth quarter, the Lions cruised to victory. Sophomore guard Jason Gish scored all of his nine points in the fourth quarter, including a few reverse lay-ups to throw Big Valley for a spin. Junior forward Aaron Perchaz had three boards, and Valley Christian finished its opponent off.

Caleb Theodore of Big Valley led the squad with eight rebounds. Tyler Aderholt was the leading scorer with 15 points including three field goals from beyond the arc.

Peters led VCA with six rebounds.

Gunter is wary about No. 4 Valley Christian’s next foe. Sacramento Waldorf (21-7) is the fifth seed in the Division V tournament field.

“If we get Waldorf, they are a well coached, unbelievably disciplined, hard nosed, man-to-man team,” Gunter said. “We will approach it totally different than tonight. Honestly we’re going to enjoy tonight, and then tomorrow figure out a game plan. The biggest thing with Waldorf is that when you have a coach over there with 500 wins under his belt, he’s going to have a few things up his sleeve.”

While Gunter and the team are proud of their accomplishment, they are more focused on the road ahead.

“Our goal is really (the section semifinal round in) Galt,” Gunter said. “We are taking it one game at a time. This next game is the biggest one of the season.”