ORANGE COUNTY PREP BASKETBALL : Orange League : Brea-Olinda Falls After Victory : Coin Toss Puts Wildcats Third Behind Magnolia, Valencia

Less than 10 minutes after Brea-Olinda High School basketball players and students amassed at center court to celebrate an emotional 66-62 Orange League victory over Magnolia, the evening turned bittersweet for the Wildcats. After a coin toss they went from co-champions to third place.

Brea, Magnolia and Valencia all finished league play with 8-2 records. So, immediately following the Wildcats’ victory, officials from all three schools met in an athletic department office at Magnolia.

Magnolia (18-5) won the initial toss by being the only school to flip tails. Brea and Valencia then flipped a single coin, with Valencia winning the toss.

“It’ll help out a little bit,” said Al Walin, Magnolia coach.

What the coin toss did was take the sting out of a very close loss for Magnolia.

The lead swung back and forth through the first three quarters, and the score was tied, 49-49, entering the fourth quarter.

The teams traded three baskets to keep the game tied with three minutes remaining. That was when Brea forward Gary Chiottidecided to take the initiative, driving through Magnolia tight defense for a layup.

The Wildcats (17-8) got the ball back and guard Alan Reyes calmly made a 15-foot jump shot from the corner. A Magnolia turnover was converted into a layup by Brea’s Ron Thomas, to give the Wildcats their biggest lead of the quarter, 61-55.

The game was far from finished, however, as Magnolia’s Mike Goff rebounded a missed shot, scored a layup and was fouled. Goff made the free throw to close the gap to 61-58 with 56 seconds left.

Each team scored a basket keep Brea’s lead at three points with only 17 seconds when Magnolia’s Victor Banuelos stole an inbounds pass and scored a layup to cut the deficit to 63-62.

Magnolia fouled Chiotti on the next play. Without any hesitation, he made both free throws, putting the game away.

Thomas led Brea with 25 points and Mike Thorum added 14. Goff scored 18 points for Magnolia, all in the second half, and Banuelos had 17.

Valencia 49, Savanna 39--The Tigers fell behind at the half, 18-11, but scored 38 points after intermission at Savanna. Dennis Burbank led the charge with 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half. Jeff Franck scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half for Valencia (8-2, 18-5).

Bobby Booker scored 10 points for Savanna (4-6).