2-A : Woodbridge Defeats Banning in Fight-Marred Game

At the time, the trade hardly seemed fair. Irvine Woodbridge High School’s Adam Keefe, an All-Southern Section center, for Richard Reyna, a Banning reserve forward.

Both were ejected from the 2-A championship game Saturday at the Sports Arena, won by Woodbridge, 68-60, in overtime.

Reyna was ousted for clothes-lining and slamming Keefe to the floor as he tried a dunk midway through the fourth quarter. It touched off a brawl that was broken up by coaches, security personnel and police. The fight involved every player on both teams.

One Woodbridge player, Chris Deibert, was hit in the face by an unidentified man in street clothes. After order was restored, the man was sitting on the Banning bench. Police later escorted him off the court before play began.

Keefe, a 6-foot 7-inch junior forward, had scored 32 points. He helped to bring Woodbridge back from an 11-point deficit in the second quarter and into the lead at 41-40 with 3:10 left in the third quarter.

But Woodbridge had to play the final 4:37 of regulation and the overtime period without Keefe, who made 12 of 22 shots and had 12 rebounds.

Banning (of Riverside County) lost Reyna and the 2 points he scored in 6 minutes.

Keefe: “I didn’t see (Reyna) coming, but from the way he hit me, I could tell he wasn’t going for the ball.”

After he was knocked to the floor underneath the Woodbridge basket, Keefe got up and went after Reyna, touching off the free-for-all.

The fight also marked a turning point in the game. From then on, Vince Bryan, a senior forward, and Dave Townsend, a senior guard, took charge. Bryan, who had 12 points, made all four of his free throws in overtime as the Warriors pulled away.

“The fight helped our intensity,” Bryan said. “We picked up our game a notch after that.”

Townsend (10 points) hit a jumper to begin overtime and made 7 of 8 at the line after the fight.

Although the Warriors made all eight free throws in overtime, Banning made only 4 of 13 in the entire game.

Still, after Dennis Gray made a short jumper to tie it at 58-58 and Woodbridge threw it away at the other end, the Broncos had a chance to win in regulation.

But Andre Stringer missed on a drive with two seconds left. Stringer scored a team-high 18 points for the Broncos.

The overtime belonged to Woodbridge, however, as the Warriors outscored the Broncos, 10-2.