Canyon Beats Up Burroughs

“Pack the Gym,” read the signs posted around the Canyon High campus this week. The game against Burroughs of Ridgecrest Friday evening was billed as the battle “for first place in the Golden League,” and rightly so.

Canyon students, family and friends packed the gym and watched the Canyon Cowboys panic the gym, taking Burroughs into overtime before claiming first place in league with a 75-69 overtime victory in front of a emotionally charged crowd.

With 20 seconds left in regulation, Kevin Featherston scored for the Burros to send the game into the extra period, 65-65. Both teams exchanged scores in overtime, until Burroughs’ Marc Mead fouled Greg Paskwietz. Paskwietz hit two free throws. Mead then inbounded the ball, but none of his teammates were alert enough to retrieve it and Canyon had it back.

What followed was hardly indicative of any Canyon High athletic contest. It got downright nasty.

Sensing imminent defeat, Burroughs’ Allan Celestine committed a flagrant foul on Canyon’s Butch Mettinger, sending the latter to the line. Mettinger sank two, sending Celestine to the bench, courtesy of the referees.

With Celestine sitting on the bench, ejected and dejected, Mettinger hit another basket to cap the scoring.

The buzzer sounded, the crowd cheered and the players met at mid-court for a bench-clearing brawl.

“That takes a little luster off the win,” Canyon Coach Greg Hayes said. “But just a little. With the win, Canyon is in fine position to win its first Golden League championship in eight years.

Said Hayes: “We were bucking eight years of tradition out there in the fourth quarter.”

The Cowboys still have a little bucking to do if its to claim the league championship. Left on its schedule are Palmdale and Saugus, teams Canyon (15-7, 7-1) has already beat.

Burroughs (15-4, 6-1) has to play Saugus tonight in a makeup game, and Antelope Valley and Quartz Hill. Although favored against Saugus tonight, the Burros might be emotionally drained. They came out on the short end of the brawl--a Burroughs assistant coach took an errant fist, fattening his lip--and their star player, Celestine, was roughed up in the melee. Some Canyon students bolted from the stands to the floor in support of classmates.

Celestine finished with a team-high 22 points. Featherston had 18.

For Canyon, Darrin Moloznik scored a game- and career-high 30 points, leading four Cowboys who scored in double figures. Mettinger had 22, and Greg Paskwietz and Stuart Sayre each had 10.