ORANGE COUNTY PREP BASKETBALL : Century League : Foothill Upsets Lethargic Santa Ana

The Santa Ana High School basketball team was sick to begin with, and its condition only deteriorated during Wednesday night’s Century League game against Foothill.

And when it was over, after the Knights had upset the Saints, 47-40, in Foothill’s gym, Saint Coach Greg Coombs had to be feeling a little queasy.

Center Bobby Joyce played with a sprained wrist, and forward Jeff Stewart and guard Leo Leon played with the flu, but the Saints looked even worse than they must have felt.

Santa Ana shot just 33% from the field (16 for 48) and turned the ball over 18 times. Joyce, who had been averaging 23.3 points per game, was held to just 9 points and 10 shots.

The Saints, normally a full-court, pressing team, played defense with little intensity and forced only seven turnovers.

“Overall, it was not one of our better games,” Coombs said, understating the obvious.

Foothill wasn’t much better. Through three periods, the Knights were shooting 29% from the field and, three times in the fourth quarter, they missed the front end of one-and-one free-throw situations.

But the Knights put together one solid stretch in the final 2:20 to pull away from the Saints and pull even with them in the standings. Foothill, Santa Ana, Canyon and Santa Ana Valley are all tied for first at 2-1.

Greg Rieber, who scored a team-high 18 points, gave Foothill a 39-36 lead when he made a jump shot with 2:20 to go. Willie Lane missed a jumper on the other end, and Foothill capitalized when Chris Aqueveque sank a short jump shot for a 41-36 lead.

Stewart, who scored a game-high 21 points and was the only Saint in double figures, missed his fifth shot of the fourth quarter with 1:18 left, and Aqueveque then made two free throws to put Foothill in front, 43-36, with 58 seconds left.

Stewart made a follow shot with 44 seconds to go, but Pat Dorn made four free throws in the final 36 seconds to end Santa Ana’s hopes.

Canyon 93, El Modena 89 (3 OT)--David Jones scored 44 points to lead the Comanches at El Modena. The Vanguards outscored Canyon, 34-20, in the fourth period to send the game into overtime, but the Comanches outscored the Vanguards, 11-7, in the final extra period.

Ralph Pacheco added 16 points for Canyon. John DeGree (20 points), Brian Bullock (19), Adam Coghill (16) and Jeff Steingraber (14) led the Vanguards.

Santa Ana Valley 66, Villa Park 65--The Falcons trailed by three points at halftime and by nine points in third quarter, but Jason Vaughn led a scoring drive that put Santa Ana Valley ahead by three points with four minutes remaining.

Dedric Bentley then hit two free throws with 40 seconds left at Santa Ana Valley. Vaughn finished with 17 points for Santa Ana Valley (2-1, 4-11). Villa Park (0-3, 4-11) was led by Chris Storck, who scored 19 points.