ORANGE COUNTY PREP BASKETBALL : Century League : Santa Ana Takes Battle for the Title by Beating Foothill

For all practical purposes, this one was over with seven minutes still to play, when Bobby Joyce’s emphatic fast-break dunk gave Santa Ana High School a 41-30 lead.

Santa Ana, the No. 8 team in the Orange County Sportswriters Assn. poll, had less trouble than expected in a game that was a battle for the Century League title, defeating Foothill, 53-47, Friday night at Santa Ana.

Foothill held Joyce, Orange County’s top rebounder and ninth-leading scorer, under his averages, but not by far enough to help their cause in a low-scoring game. Joyce finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds, below his 20.5 and 15.1 averages. Jeff Stewart added 13 for the Saints.

With the victory, Santa Ana (7-1, 18-6) is guaranteed at least a tie for the Century League championship. A victory in one of their final two games--against El Modena and Santa Ana Valley--will give defending champion Santa Ana the title outright.

“The championship, that’s what we want,” said Santa Ana Coach Greg Coombs.

The game was the third meeting of the season between the teams. Santa Ana won the first, 54-52, in the Orange Holiday Tournament, and Foothill won the first league contest, 47-40.

Foothill (13-10, 6-2) watched its last chance slip away after Bill Mazurie was called for a technical after being called for a foul on an attempted steal with three minutes remaining.

Santa Ana’s Jeff Stewart made all three foul shots and then Joyce scored on the awarded possession, giving the Saints a 51-41 lead.

“We had some momentum but we lost it with the technical,” said Foothill Coach Jim Reames.

Foothill had cut the lead to three by scoring nine straight points during a two-minute stretch.

Bill Peckham, who finished with eight, was responsible for much of the run, scoring on a second follow shot, making a free throw and rebounding his own miss, and intercepting a pass. Afterward, Coombs said he had not been very concerned.

“They made a nice little run,” he said.

Foothill led five in the first quarter, and was ahead 19-14 on Greg Rieber’s layup after a steal with five minutes to play in the half. But the Knights, who shot just 39% in the game, were held scoreless in the next six minutes.

Santa Ana took advantage of the opportunity, and before Doug Kopcha made a jump shot a minute into the third quarter, had taken a six point lead that it never relinquished.

Foothill closed the margin at the end, scoring four points in the final three seconds on a technical foul shot, a foul shot and a tip-in basket.

“There were some dry spells in our offense,” Reames said. “They did a good job on us.”

Rieber led Foothill with 13.

El Modena 64, Canyon 63--The Comanches (4-4, 9-10) had the ball with 29 seconds left and missed two shots that would have won the game. Canyon led at the half, 35-33, but was outscored 26-17 in the third quarter and trailed, 59-52, at the end of the quarter.

John DeGree led the El Modena (3-5) run with 14 of his 26 points. El Modena scored only five points in the final quarter and DeGree fouled at early in the final quarter.

Ramsey Rycraw was the only other El Modena player in double figures with 11 points.

David Jones, senior guard, scored a game-high 30 points for Canyon. Teammate Ralph Pacheco scored 13 points before fouling out midway through the fourth quarter.

Santa Ana Valley 67, Villa Park 58--Guard Brett Beale scored 30 points and Derrick Bentley added 16 to lead the Falcons at Villa Park. The score was tied, 46-46, with about five minutes to play when Santa Ana outscored the Spartans, 8-2, to take the lead for good. Chris Storck led Villa Park with 16.