The Falcons escaped another nail biter to stand alone atop the Northern Athletic League, for now.

Clinging to a three-point lead, Central Valley’s Carlos Mancasola missed the front end of a 1-and-1 to give the Eagles the ball with 11 seconds remaining. After the West Valley timeout, James Koerperich’s deep 3-pointer from the right wing fell short, and the long rebound allowed time to expire for the Falcons to hang on for a 40-37 road victory over rival West Valley on Friday.

“These games are killing me. This is not good for my health,” CV boys coach Kevin Strohmayer said after his second one-bucket victory in the past three games. “Our defense came up big once again in the second half for us, and you have to give credit to the guys for playing tough the whole time.”

The Falcons (3-1 NAL, 13-7) needed a balanced team scoring night to top the Eagles (1-2 NAL, 9-10). Mancasola finished with seven points and four steals, Christian Spaschak pitched in with nine points and six rebounds and Randy McCarley added eight points and eight boards.

But the difference maker was Dylan Janulewicz, who scored a game-high 10 points off the bench with two late offensive put backs in the fourth quarter to help CV escape once again.

“In the game, you don’t really think about it. You just have to play hard and not give up,” Janulewicz said.

Janulewicz, the 6-foot-3 senior center, provided a big body to defend the Eagles’ post players, who dominated the first half inside the paint. With Spaschak picking up two fouls within the first four minutes of the contest, CV fell apart in the first half protecting the paint. All but one of West Valley’s field goals through the first two periods came from inside, and it helped them jump out to a 19-11 lead with 3:02 to play.

Janulewicz came up big in precious minutes, igniting a 7-0 run to close out the half with two offensive rebound put backs for the Falcons to trail 19-18.

CV translated that late momentum into more baskets as Spaschak opened the third period with a deep 3-pointer, Andrew Albertson and Mancasola each hit midrange jumpers and three combined free throws from Spaschak and McCarley capped off a 17-2 run in 9:00 for the Falcons to lead 28-21.

“Sometimes, we start to settle on our shots,” West Valley coach Josh Schwedt said. “Our bigs did a great job in the first half, but we hit a dry spell and went back to them after that.”

Those post players led the team in scoring with Danny Vietti and Colton Strickland tallying eight points and 10 rebounds each.

“I told the guys that we have to approach every game like it’s a playoff game from here on out,” Strohmayer said. “We control our own destiny, but we were in this position last year and blew it. There’s still a lot of basketball to be played, but the guys know what it takes to win and that’s team defense and we’re doing that right now.”

CV has a bye Tuesday before hosting Anderson through the next wave of NAL play while West Valley has a tough week ahead of them, traveling to Anderson on Tuesday and Corning on Friday.