Century League : Orange Defeats Santa Ana

For Santa Ana High School senior Chris Smith, it was the natural thing to do.

Smith rebounded Tom Peet’s missed free throw with six seconds remaining in the game and the Saints tied with Orange, 48-48. He called time with three seconds to go, figuring it would give Santa Ana a chance to design a play for a final shot.

What he didn’t figure was that the Saints were out of timeouts.

Santa Ana was called for the technical, and Panther forward Dave Roth, who finished with a team-high 16 points, sank the ensuing foul shot to give Orange a 49-48 Century League victory in front of about 700 boisterous fans in the Panthers’ gym.

“He’s a high school kid--what are you gonna do?” Saint Coach Greg Coombs said of Smith’s miscue. “He got excited, and he thought he did the right thing. I told them in the huddle (during the prior timeout) that we were out of timeouts, but the kid made a mistake. You can’t shoot him.”

The Panthers gladly accepted the free shot, which closed out an exciting fourth period. The score was tied on seven different occasions, and Orange came from behind to win.

Santa Ana went ahead, 48-45, on Eric Turner’s free throw with 36 seconds left, but Orange pulled to within one on Eric Hendry’s inside basket. The Panthers then fouled Saint sophomore Darrell Bailey, who missed in the one-and-one situation.

Orange’s Matt McIntire missed a jumper on the other end, but the rebound went off a Santa Ana player and out of bounds. Sean McCoy, who made two crucial, corner jump shots in the final quarter, could not hit from the top of the key, but Peet snared the rebound and was fouled by Santa Ana’s Roger Flores.

Flores appeared to have Peet tied up for a jump ball on the play, but the referee cited him for a foul instead, and Peet made one of two free throws to tie the game, 48-48. His miss on the second shot led to Smith’s untimely time-out call.

Orange contained Flores in the first half, limiting the 6-4 center to four points, but he broke loose in the second half and finished with a game-high 19 points, despite being double covered all game. Turner had 15 points and Jeff Stewart added 14, but, along with Flores, they were the only Saints to score.

SANTA ANA (48)--Stewart 14, Flores 19, Turner 15.

ORANGE (49)--McCoy 10, Bertrand 3, Roth 16, Hendry 15, Peet 5.

In other Century League action:

Foothill 59, Santa Ana Valley 50--The Knights pulled away from the Falcons in the fourth period, outscoring Santa Ana Valley, 20-12, to remain in a three-way tie for first place with El Modena and Orange. Foothill made 12 of 14 free throws in the final quarter.

The Knights were led by guard Ralph Laird, who scored a game-high 20 points, and Stacy Parker, who finished with 10 points. Alonzo Jamison also scored 20 points for the Falcons.

FOOTHILL (59)--Dutrisac 8, Gore 9, Laird 20, Briggs 8, Parker 10, Myers 4.

SANTA ANA VALLEY (50)--Drake 7, Whitlock 4, Jamison 20, Alls 9, Nelson 4, Ross 2, Hickman 2.

El Modena 67, Canyon 52--The Vanguards jumped out to a 22-12 lead after one quarter, then held the Comanches scoreless for the first five minutes of the third period en route to the win at home.

Colin Moss scored 24 points and had 24 rebounds to lead the Vanguards. He just missed the school-record of 25 rebounds, set by Steve Trumbo.

CANYON (52)--Rippe 8, Spencer 11, Stine 8, Ream 2, Mury 5, Garcia 8, Phillips 10.

EL MODENA (67)--Moss 24, Rycraw 17, McDuffie 8, DeFeo 6, Baytosh 2, Hamlin 8, Ervin 2. Tustin 40, Villa Park 38--The Tillers broke a five-game losing streak with the win at home. Senior center Mike Predney scored 10 points to lead Tustin. Gordon Lay made two free throws with nine seconds left to put the Tillers ahead, 40-36.

VILLA PARK (38)--Dufault 6, Koob 13, Christensen 6, Ramirez 5, Steensland 8.

TUSTIN (40)--Piazza 6, Kovac 4, Predney 10, Morse 7, Anderson 9, Lay 4.