Boys Basketball : With Three Seconds Left, Rancho Alamitos Throws the Ball, and Game, Away

There were three seconds left in Rancho Alamitos High School’s first-round game against Valencia in the Valencia Tournament Monday and things couldn’t have looked finer for the Vaqueros.

Rancho Alamitos had the ball out of bounds and the lead.

But just as quick as you can throw a ball away, Rancho Alamitos threw away the game, and Valencia won, 62-61, at home.

It happened liked this:

Rancho Alamitos was taking the ball out of bounds under the Valencia basket with three seconds remaining and a 61-60 lead.

The Vaqueros attempted a length-of-the-court pass but the pass went out of bounds without touching a player. Because the ball did not touch a player, no time expired off the clock and Valencia was awarded the ball underneath its own basket.

Valencia guard Mike Munoz took the ball out and lobbed a pass to Dennis Burbank, who caught the ball in midair and shot. The ball went into the basket as the buzzer sounded and Valencia had a dramatic victory.

Burbank led Valencia in scoring with 24 points. He also had 13 rebounds. Jeff Franck had 17 rebounds for the Tigers (1-0).

Randy Morales, Rancho Alamitos guard, led all scorers with 31 points.

In other first-round action in the Valencia tournament:

Mater Dei 86, Rosemead 57--LeRon Ellis scored 29 points and Kevin Rembert added 21 to lead the Monarchs (1-0) to this easy victory. Mater Dei led by 13 points at the half, and by 20 by the end of the third quarter.

Esperanza 72, La Habra 52--Rob Nay scored 20 points and Ross Harvey added 19 to lead the Aztecs (1-0) to the victory. Esperanza led throughout the game--it had a 38-27 halftime lead--and was never threatened. Rich Gammado had 16 points for Esperanza. Forward Mike Kent, playing in only the fourth quarter, led Esperanza in rebounding with 8. Nelson Begamo had 13 points for La Habra.

In first-round action in the Costa Mesa Tournament:

University 81, Mayfair 71--Lasse Glassen, a 6-foot 7-inch center, scored 36 points and had 18 rebounds to lead the Trojans (1-0) to this first-round victory at Costa Mesa. Guard Eric Olin added 23 points. Bob Partin scored 23 points for Mayfair (0-1).

Whitney 69, La Quinta 68--Whitney (1-0) outscored La Quinta 20-9 in the fourth to get this narrow first-round victory. Chris Barnes scored 7 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and Matt Bowley had 5 rebounds in the quarter to lead the Whitney rally. La Quinta’s (0-1) Scott Campbell led all scorers with 19 points.

In first-round action in the Garden Grove Tournament:

Garden Grove 51, Loara 38--Greg Lorenz led the Argonauts with 16 points, 14 of them in the second half. A fourth-quarter six-point drive led by Todd Eaton couldn’t save the Saxons from defeat.

Pacifica 63, Laguna Hills 60--Pacifica scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to rally from a 28-31 halftime deficit. Bruce Allan led the Mariners with 16 points; Mike Short scored 15 points. The Hawks were led by Chris Sheff with 18 points.

In nonleague action:

Trabuco Hills 55, Santa Ana Valley 44--Rick Swanwick scored 17 points and Chad Poulos added 12 to lead Trabuco Hills to this victory at home. Swanwick also had 12 rebounds.