Empire League : Katella Defeats Kennedy

The term is “homered,” and in basketball vernacular, it is loosely defined as the home team getting the benefit of the doubt from the officials. Depending on who’s doing the talking, it either didn’t apply to Katella High School’s 60-57 win over Kennedy Friday night in the Knights’ gym, or it made the difference.

Katella Coach Tom Danley will tell you officiating was irrelevant in a victory he said his team absolutely had to have in order to get back in the race for the Empire League championship.

Kennedy Coach John Mayberry said he “very seldom ever says anything about officials.” In this case, he made an exception.

Mayberry was adamant in his feeling that Kennedy’s second-half comeback fell short because, as he saw it, nearly every critical call went Katella’s way in the final minutes.

“That’s nothing new,” Mayberry said. “They were going to the free throw line every 10 seconds. What can you do?”

Empire League League Overall School W L W L Kennedy 7 1 14 4 El Dorado 6 2 15 3 Katella 6 2 14 3 Los Alamitos 5 3 8 9 Esperanza 3 5 7 9 Loara 2 6 6 10 Cypress 2 6 4 11 Pacifica 1 7 3 13

Danley argued that the game was won in the first half, when Katella dominated nearly every phase en route to a 32-18 halftime lead. The Knights got out to leads of 6-0, 17-7 and 26-9 along the way. Kennedy was playing miserably, hitting just 7 of 27 shots from the field.

“Do you think they got homered in the first half?” Danley asked a reporter after hearing of Mayberry’s remarks. “There’s no room for that. I’m surprised he said that.”

Danley’s arguement is not without foundation. Even Mayberry conceded that the first half belonged to Katella. “We didn’t deserve to win in the first half,” he said. “But we did deserve to win in the second half.”

Katella led, 43-23, midway through the third quarter before Kennedy finally began to make its move. Glen Mares and Anthony Hinojos came off the bench to combine for 16 points and help the Fighting Irish outscore Katella, 21-17, in the third quarter. Kennedy continued to cut away at the deficit, outscoring the Knights, 12-5, over the first 4 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter.

Dave Linker drove the baseline for a basket with 2:32 remaining and added a free throw after Kennedy’s Jeff Green was called for blocking on the play. That gave Katella a 57-51 lead and brought Mayberry off the bench arguing for a charging call against Linker.

Two free throws by Don Yourstone extended Katella’s lead to 59-51 at the 1:36 mark, but Kennedy responded with an 18-foot jumper by Brett Bissell, two free throws by Walt Lauderdale and a Lauderdale jumper from 10 feet out. Lauderdale’s basket came with 27 seconds left, and was followed immediately by a Kennedy timeout.

The scoreboard clock showed 23 seconds remaining, but the officials had it reset to 25. Katella had the ball with a 59-57 lead. On the ensuing inbounds play, Kennedy’s full-court press appeared to have forced a 10-second violation against Katella. Kennedy was whistled for a foul in the Katella backcourt, with the clock showing 14 seconds to play. That meant that 11 seconds had transpired and Katella had failed to cross midcourt.

The officials corrected that by adding two seconds to the clock and ruling that the foul had occured nine seconds into the 10-second count.

“He (the official) said it was nine,” Mayberry said. “I told him he couldn’t count. I was watching the clock.”

Osmar DeChavez added a free throw for Katella with seven seconds left to provide the final margin.

Afterward, his voice increasing in volume with each word, Mayberry pointed out that the Irish (14-4) are still alone at the top of the league standings at 7-1. Katella is 14-3 overall, 6-2 in league.

“We’re in first place, darn it,” Mayberry said. “People forget that. We’re in first place. They have to catch us.”

KATELLA (60)--Erbst 14, Bennett 13, Yourstone 4, Linker 14, Donnelly 5, D. Chavez 1, Baldwin 9.

KENNEDY (57)--Dissell 2, Lauderdale 9, Queen 1, Green 12, Davidson 4, Galante 8, Hinojos 9, Mares 12.

Kennedy 7 11 21 18 -- 57

Katella 17 15 17 11 -- 60

In other Empire League action:

Esperanza 57, Pacifica 55--Bob Anthony stole the ball and hit teammate John Dragonette, who made a layup with 30 seconds left in double overtime to give the host Aztecs the win. Esperanza (3-5, 7-7) was led by Doug Sheets’ 18 points and Anthony added 14. Pacifica (1-7, 3-13) held the ball for the last minute of regulation but missed the game-winning shot.

ESPERANZA (57)--Dragonette 6, Anthony 14, Sheets 18, Webb 6, Ziraitis 6, Eaves 2, Harvey 5.

PACIFICA (55)--Brown 2, Tejeda 10, Brodowski 20, Hall 2, Shelton 2, Brodt 17, Yano 2.

Pacifica 12 15 8 14 2 4--55

Esperanza 20 8 12 9 2 6--57

Los Alamitos 67, Cypress 51--Center Paul Crandall scored 26 points and had 24 rebounds to lead the Griffins (5-3, 7-9) to an easy win over the Centurions (2-6, 4-11) at Cypress College. Los Alamitos took a 24-22 lead over its rival at halftime and was never challenged in the second half. Guard J.T. Snow added 19 points and 7 assists for the Griffins. Guard Eric Krivashei had 15 points and 7 assists for Cypress.

LOS ALAMITOS (67)--Snow 19, Goodman 10, Belle 4, Jorgenson 2, Irvin 1, Woods 5, Crandall 26.

CYPRESS (51)--Hopkins 4, Civitelli 10, Bausch 6, Kote 5, Krivashei 15, Muellerleile 5, Johnson 4, Vreugdenhil 2.

Los Alamitos 15 19 16 17 -- 67

Cypress 12 10 10 19 -- 51

El Dorado 51, Loara 47--Damon Cooke scored 15 points and Jim Mansfield added 12 as the fifth-ranked Hawks (6-2) averted an upset by beating the Saxons (2-6) at Loara.

Loara trailed by eight points, 43-35, after three quarters and then cut the El Dorado lead to three at 46-43 with three minutes left by breaking the Hawks’ press. But in the final minutes, El Dorado made its free throws to hold on. Loara’s John Parker led all scorers with 18 points, and Brian Shinoda added 10.

EL DORADO (51)--Mansfield 12, Sammon 4, Hakeman 12, Ramos 4, Cooke 15, Walker 2, Krapf 2. LOARA (47)--Shinoda 10, Parker 18, Milo 2, West 4, Clester 5, Miller 2, Porreca 6.

El Dorado 14 15 14 8 -- 51

Loara 8 13 14 12 -- 47