Century League : El Modena Continues to Drop

A week ago, El Modena High School was tied for first place in the Century League. After Friday night, the Vanguards were in fourth place. Slide is not the word for what this team is doing.

Santa Ana (5-2, 10-7) did it to El Modena (4-3, 10-6) Friday night, 61-60, before 300 raucous fans in Santa Ana’s gym. The frustration that froze in Vanguard Coach Bill Ervin’s face reflected the closeness of the game. And, having lost three of its last four games, the frustration of a season of unfulfilled expectations for El Modena became a crushing weight on the team’s back.

If the Century League can be characterized as a competitive and always balanced league, then Friday night’s game epitomized that. Both teams ran, shot and hustled with equal gusto. But, 50 fouls were called.

“I’m glad we got out of that one,” Saints Coach Greg Coombs said. “We just didn’t think there would be that many fouls in the game. I didn’t think the play was sloppy. I just think they (officials) called the game real tight. It wasn’t a badly called game.”

Tell that to the Santa Ana and El Modena fans, whose vocal gymnastics made it a noisy night for the players. At one point, an official told a scorer that if a certain fan didn’t refrain from further verbal abuse, the scorer was to escort the fan out of the gym. It was that kind of night in the facility Santa Ana High calls “The Court”. (That label was coined two years ago after a school-wide name-the-gym contest. And they say teen-agers have no imagination.)

The game took shape as a blowout for the Saints. Forward Jeff Stewart, who had 12 points for Santa Ana, got some early points inside to pace the Saints. But the fast-paced game took a slow turn as fouls began to be called. There were 16 fouls in the first quarter alone.

Century League League Overall School W L W L Foothill 6 1 15 4 Orange 6 1 12 6 Santa Ana 5 2 10 7 El Modena 4 3 10 6 Santa Ana Valley 3 4 4 10 Canyon 2 4 7 9 Tustin 1 6 6 12 Villa Park 0 6 4 11

Both teams pulled their starters out in the first half to prevent fouls. In the second half, El Modena had its starters switch to a zone defense in order to keep its players from fouling out.

“This is the most we’ve played the zone all year,” Coombs said. “Before this game, we had played maybe a total of one half of zone. But when we got into foul trouble, we had to go to the zone.”

All of the Vanguards’s starters had four fouls before the fourth quarter. But they came back with a furious second half scoring burst that cut an eight-point lead to just two with a minute left in the game. The Vanguards outscored the Saints 24-17 in the fourth quarter. Ryan Rycraw was the big shooter for the the Vanguards. The forward continually made a crucial jumper to keep the Saints close. The junior led all scorers with 22 points.

With 1:47 left in the game, El Modena’s Darren DeFeo sank two free throws to bring the Vanguards to within two at 58-60. Santa Ana took an inbounds pass with 1:08 and went into a four-corner stall. But a lane violation gave El Modena the ball with 27 seconds left. The Vanguards’ best shooter, Jason Hamlin, took his team’s last shot but missed from the right corner.

Santa Ana’s Eric Turner got the rebound and was fouled. He made one free throw, making it 61-58 with one second left in the game. Santa Ana allowed Rycraw a layup, giving the Saints the one-point victory.

EL MODENA (60)--Moss 15, Rycraw 22, Matlock 4, DeFeo 7, Baytosh 6, Hamlin 2, Ervin 2.

SANTA ANA (61)--Rettburg 3, Tellez 6, Stewart 12, Smith 7, Bailey 1, Poencet 6, Flores 10, Turner 16.

El Modena 12 14 10 24 -- 60 Santa Ana 17 17 10 17 -- 61

Orange 66, Santa Ana Valley 47--Dave Roth had 24 points and Tom Peete added 15 to lead the Panthers to their sixth win in league play. Playing at home Orange jumped out to a 10-2 lead after the first quarter, but led by just a point at haltime. The Panthers outscored the Falcons by eight in the third and were never threatened in the fourth quarter.

Orange will play host to Canyon on Wednesday.

Mike Whitlock and Eugene Alls led the Falcons (3-4) with 10 points each.

SANTA ANA VALLEY (47)--Whitlock 10, Drake 6, Jamison 8, Alls 10, Nelson 9, Ross 2, Hickman 2.

ORANGE (66)--Holman 4, McIntire 4, Miller 2, Peete 15, McCoy 6, Roth 24, Hendry 11.

Santa Ana Valley 2 16 12 17 -- 47

Orange 10 9 20 27 -- 66

Foothill 63, Tustin 46--Jud Dutrisac scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Knights to their fourth-straight win at home. Gar Myers added 13 points.

TUSTIN (46)--Piazza 2, Predney 5, Kovac 9, Anderson 8, Morse 2, Lay 4, O’Brien 2, Gauer 12.

FOOTHILL (63)--Dutrisac 20, Gore 6, Laird 9, Gazzaniga 1, Briggs 6, Parker 1, Myers 13, Clark 7.

Tustin 9 10 11 16--46

Foothill 18 15 19 11--63

Villa Park at Canyon--Friday night’s game between the Spartans and Comanches at Canyon was postponed. A minute into the game, with Canyon leading, 2-0, the lights in the gymnasium went out. After a half-hour waiting, the game was called and rescheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. at Canyon.