Garden Grove League : La Quinta Lines Up for Playoffs

La Quinta High School made 9 of 11 free-throw attempts in the final quarter to earn a 60-50 victory at Garden Grove on Friday night and all but assured itself a berth in the Southern Section 3-A playoffs.

The victory moved the Aztecs into a second-place tie with Garden Grove at 5-3 with two games remaining. The top three teams from each league will advance to the postseason tournament.

Guard Scott St. John made six consecutive free throws, all on one-and-one opportunities in the final two minutes, to spark the victory. Forward Mike Zugates gave the Aztec fans something to cheer about when he dribbled the length of the court and dunked with six seconds remaining for the final points of the game.

Garden Grove did manage to gain a 49-48 lead with 2:59 remaining after center Jim O’Connor scored on a follow shot, but it was all La Quinta down the stretch.

“Most of the coaches knew all along that Rancho Alamitos was the team to beat, and their talent has prevailed,” Aztec Coach Jim Perry said. “We played them on Wednesday night and held them to only 29 shots. Unfortunately, they made 20 of them.

“The rest of us with the exception of Los Amigos were all equal. I figured the team that played the most consistent basketball in the second round of league would be in great shape. I’m very happy to see the way we’ve played lately.

“We were on the verge of being an up-and-down team that was on the way down. We played well tonight, particularly in the second half and deserve to go to the playoffs.”

Trailing 24-15 deficit with 4:09 left, the Aztecs cut it to a 29-28 deficit at halftime. Guard Nathan Barker made two straight jump shots to spark an eight-point scoring streak.

The teams traded leads on six occasions in the third quarter. Zugates, who sat out most of the first half in foul trouble, scored seven points in the third quarter to help push La Quinta into a 43-41 lead going into the last quarter.

Zugates scored 11 of his 17 points in the second half and added 10 rebounds overall. St. John also scored 17 points, with 9 coming at the line.

“I thought the kids did a good job keeping us in the game when Zugates got into foul trouble,” Perry said. “We’re a much improved team. People tend to forget we lost all our of starters from last year and had only one player with any varsity experience. The kids have matured and I couldn’t be happier.”

LA QUINTA (60)--Zugates 17, Barker 14, St. John 17, Buford 9, Rectenwald 3.

GARDEN GROVE (50)--Kiefer 8, Guibord 8, Kaser 10, Crone 6, Duran 8, O’Connor 10.

Garden Grove League

League Overall School W L W L Rancho Alamitos 7 1 12 9 Garden Grove 5 3 12 9 La Quinta 5 3 9 10 Santiago 4 4 11 9 Bolsa Grande 3 5 10 11 Los Amigos 0 8 2 17

In other league action:

Rancho Alamitos 63, Los Amigos 50--Forward Ruben Patton scored 15 points to lead the Vaqueros’ win at Los Amigos. The first-place Vaqueros are 7-1 in league. Geno Howard had a game-high 20 points for Los Amigos (0-8, 3-14).

RANCHO ALAMITOS (63)--Patton 15, Carter 8, Velasquez 2, Perry 10, Nguyen 5, Hong 4, Tryon 8, Porter 4, Pham 5, Adams 2.

LOS AMIGOS (50)--Howard 20, McMullen 7, Hyatt 1, Cortez 3, Guidi 4, Martell 2, Williams 3, Garcia 4, Grandison 1, Pearson 5.

Santiago 61, Bolsa Grande 49--Darryl Curry had 22 points and Thanara Tran added 21 to lead the Cavaliers to the win at Santiago. Tran made 9 of 11 from the field for Santiago (4-4 in league).

Hung Nguyen scored 21 points on 9 of 11 shooting for the Matadors (3-5, 10-11).

BOLSA GRANDE (49)--Cao 4, Afdahl 14, Rudy 2, Nguyen 21, Valdez 8.

SANTIAGO (61)--Tran 21, Curry 22, Burns 6, Correa 4, aliva 2, Jobst 2, Castro 4.