BUTTE VALLEY >> The Pleasant Valley boys basketball team has been a strong second half team this season, but in the Northern Section Division III championship Friday night against cross-town rival Chico High, the momentum shift began in the final minutes of the first half.

After a low-scoring first half that featured seven lead changes, the Vikings pulled away in the second half and defeated the Panthers 54-41 to claim their fifth straight NSCIF D-III championship at Butte College.

“Every year PV basketball has a target on their back because we’ve been the top dogs for a while. To see that come to fruition is great to finally have that,” said Pleasant Valley senior and captain Luke Kremer. “You’re building up to that all year, each game is getting tighter and tighter, and then boom. It finally blows and it feels great.”

Kremer, the Vikings’ leading scorer, scored his first basket with 50 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Despite being limited in the first half Kremer finished with 14 points. PV head coach Tim Keating credited Chico’s defense for shutting Kremer down, as the Vikings drew up their first three plays of the game for Kremer and Gabe Garretson.

With Kremer being limited on offense in the first half, PV leaned on its center Garretson. Garretson, another senior, got his first start of the season Friday night and scored 11 of PV’s 18 points in the first half including the first four points for the Vikings.

Chico led 16-14 late in the second quarter after a 3 pointer by Chico’s Odin Nielsen gave the Panthers the lead. Garretson got to the post and made a fadeaway jumper to tie the game at 16, before Kremer cut to the basket for a layup to give PV a 18-16 lead entering the half.

Keating said he “went into them pretty hard at halftime just to fire them up,” and the seniors echoed their coach at the break.

After scoring four straight points to close the first half, PV scored five straight points in the first 1:30 of the the second half to take a 23-16 lead.

“Every time you come out of a break you’ve got to think I got to punch them in the mouth first — we’ve got to get it going,” Garretson said. “It’s all energy and momentum in games, and if you get it going and everyone falls behind you it just keeps dominoing.”

Chico trimmed the PV lead to 25-22 on layups from Rashad Samuels, Nielsen and Landon Kobz, but after a time out by PV the Vikings went on a 9-0 run to take a 34-22 lead with under one minute left in the third quarter.

“I think the third quarter there was a stretch where we had a couple let downs offensively and a couple led downs defensively and you can’t do that against a good team like Pleasant Valley,” said Chico High coach Abraham Simmons. “Now all of a sudden a two point game turns into 10 and it’s difficult to come back from 10 against anybody, but especially against a team like Pleasant Valley.”

Chico did not back down and trimmed the lead to 36-27 at the end of three quarters, but PV opened the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run to take its largest lead thus far at 44-27 with 6:33 left in the fourth. Kremer put his team on his back and scored four of his eight fourth-quarter points on the run.

With 3:37 left Garretson made a layup to put the Vikings up 19 points at 52-33 as the packed crowd at Cowan Gym began to sense the victory for PV.

Garretson, who scored 19 points in the Vikings’ NSCIF semifinal win Wednesday, finished with a season high 20 points Friday. Gabe Garretson’s brother Gavin Garretson, a sophomore, finished with 10 points including eight in the second half.

Gabe Garretson’s teammates see that he is strong on defense, rebounding and he can score, but Kremer said his favorite part of Garretson’s game is his passing ability and view of the court.

“In the second half we were swinging the ball and getting layup after layup. It’s very unselfish and I love it,” Kremer said.

For Chico High Rashad Samuels led with 12 points, seven coming in the fourth quarter. Phil Bernardez scored 11 points, Odin Nielsen scored seven and Brendan Finney scored six.

Simmons reflected on the rivalry game Friday, with both Chico schools facing off for the boys and girls section championship.

“What a great community event,” Simmons said. “Any time you get Chico High and PV together it’s fun, but you magnify that when there’s a section championship on the line that fun is magnified, that excitement is magnified and the whole thing was good.”

Keating said he would’ve never envisioned leading five straight teams to a NSCIF championship.

“It’s a tribute to our program and our coaches and admin,” Keating said. “We get the kids to buy into our culture, we have fun, we make them work hard and we make them earn the big ones.”

Both teams will earn a berth to the CIF NorCal Regional tournament. The seedings will be determined in a meeting held by the CIF Sunday, and games will likely begin Tuesday.