Community College Roundup : Santa Ana Blows a 13-Point Lead in 77-67 Loss to OCC

For Santa Ana College Coach Dana Pagett, the problems are multiplying and no solutions are in sight.

On Saturday night, for the second consecutive game, Pagett watched his Dons blow a lead and a potential victory. Santa Ana was ahead of Orange Coast by 13 points early in the second half but then went into an extended shooting slump and lost to the Pirates, 77-67, in Peterson Gym at Costa Mesa.

A similar fate had befallen Santa Ana on Wednesday when it led Cerritos by three points at halftime before going on to lose by a mere 20 points, 83-63.

The defeat left the Dons with a disappointing 1-3 South Coast Conference record and 9-8 overall mark. Orange Coast remained right behind SCC leaders Cerritos and Mt. San Antonio at 4-1 in conference and 13-6 overall.

Santa Ana scored the first six points of the second half to take a 38-25 lead and then promptly fell apart. The Dons’ three top shooters, guards Jeff Hughes, Scott Warner and Chuck Lewis, combined to go 0 for 10 from the field at one stretch as the seemingly beaten Pirates came back to win.

“I don’t have any words of wisdom to answer what happened the last two games,” a frustrated Pagett said afterward. “If I did, we would have won them. It’s hard to say what’s wrong from a coaching standpoint when you have good shooters and they can’t put the ball in the basket.”

The key figures in Orange Coast’s comeback were guard-forward Shaughn Ryan and guards Patrick Drake and Mark Goudge.

Ryan, who was being scouted by Arizona State assistant coach Henry Bibby, the former UCLA star, picked a good night to score a season-high 29 points in addition to having 13 rebounds and 5 assists. Drake scored 13 points and also made contributions with his outstanding ballhandling and aggressive defense, while Goudge also had 13 points, all of them in the second half.

After Santa Ana had built its lead to 13, Orange Coast went on a 6-0 scoring spurt. Two free throws each by Ryan and Goudge and a basket off a steal by Garinn Morton cut the Santa Ana lead to 38-31 with about 15 minutes to play. The Pirates tied the score on a 20-footer by Goudge at 44-44 with 11:27 to play and took the lead for good and for the first time since early in the first half at 54-53 on another outside shot by Goudge.

Orange Coast lengthened its lead on the free throw shooting of Ryan, Drake, Goudge and Jon Johnston. Santa Ana was led by Warner, who had 20 points, and Hughes, who had 18.

SANTA ANA (67)--Shaw 3, Escobedo 6, Warner 20, Hughes 18, Lewis 10, Streavel 4, McCall 6.

ORANGE COAST (77)--Ryan 29, Morton 2, Johnston 8, Goudge 13, Drake 13, Farmer 8, Toomey 4.

Halftime--Santa Ana, 32-25. In other South Coast Conference action:

Saddleback 53, Fullerton 52--The Gauchos’ four-game losing streak came to an end as they held on to beat the Hornets at Fullerton.

Fullerton’s Paul Rollins had a chance to win it, but missed a short jump shot in the final three seconds. The Hornets’ Michael Long and Jon Samuelson led all scorers with 14 points each, while Alexander Hamilton and Eric Cornly led Saddleback with 12 each.

The win improved Saddleback’s conference record to 1-4 and overall record to 11-8. Fullerton is 2-2 and 8-9. SADDLEBACK (53)--Hamilton 12, Dawson 8, Thomas 4, Mulder 8, Sullivan 6, Cornly 12, Carr 2.

FULLERTON (52)--Smith 6, Trueman 2, Pratt 2, Rollins 7, Haymond 6, Long 14, Samuelson 14.

Halftime--Saddleback, 30-20. Cypress 76, Golden West 53--Five minutes into a close game, the Chargers (2-2, 8-6) took control with eight straight points to pull away from the Rustlers (0-5, 7-11) at Cypress. The Chargers received good efforts from its guards as Jeff Martineau had four steals and four assists and Ron Bailey had 14 points, 5 assists and 3 steals. Golden West was paced by forwardMarc Lorigan’s 17 points and 9 rebounds, Mike Love added 10 points and 5 assists.

GOLDEN WEST (53)--Love 10, Hutson 4, Smith 2, Lorigan 17, Debbs 4, Rasmussen 2, Bruce 14.

CYPRESS (76)--Bailey 14, Martineau 8, Gerlach 6, Umans 4, Horn 10, Buckner 2, Simmons 4, Hurd 4, Swanner 6, Berwich 10, Kramer 6.

Halftime--Cypress, 31-19.