Roundup : An Imperfect Evening Ends Well for Santana : It Finally Comes Together in Last 1:48 of 63-56 Victory Over Monte Vista

Not much went according to Santana Coach John Bobof’s plans against Monte Vista Friday night, at least not until the very end.

Santana got off to a slow start and trailed most of the game. It was outrebounded, 31-24. Monte Vista’s 5-foot 9-inch guard, Jason Peters, forced it out of its usual 2-3 zone with his outside shooting. And Oystein Back, the 6-foot, 7-inch forward, had to sit out most of the game because of foul trouble.

However, in the last 1:48, Santana took the lead when Joe Church slipped behind the Monte Vista zone and made a layup. After that, Santana took its biggest lead of the game and went on to beat Monte Vista, 63-56, to hang on to first place in the Grossmont League.

Bobof liked that part of the game. But the rest of it . . .

“I don’t know what it is about our team,” Bobof said. “I think our guys think that they can just walk in and roll over teams just because we’re from Santana. That’s not true. Every team in this league is good.”

Monte Vista stayed with Santana (7-0, 4-0) even though stars James Fraser and Scott Winne were out with injuries. With those two gone, Peters and Ron Wofford took up the slack and made what could have been an easy game for Santana a tough one.

Wofford scored eight points in the second quarter and helped Monte Vista (3-2, 2-1) take a 28-15 lead. He finished with 15 points and 8 rebounds.

Peters made 10 of 17 shots from the outside, including two three-pointers for a season-high 24 points. He scored nine points in the third quarter and made a three-pointer to give Monte Vista a 44-39 lead.

“I was surprised by his outside shooting,” Bobof said. “We had to switch to a man-to-man in the second half because of it. He still scored, but it (the switch) helped us. I figured it would have one of two effects. Either it would increase our intensity--which it did--or they would blow us out.”

Santana closed the gap and trailed by only two at the end of the third period, 46-44. That’s went Bobof got Back in the game.

Back dominated on the offensive end at times in the first half. He got inside the lane several times and scored eight points, even though he sat out about half of the half.

But on defense, Back had some problems. He picked up his third foul before the end of the half and sat out the entire third period.

Although he had kept his team in the game until that point, Peters missed a three-pointer when Monte Vista trailed, 58-56, with 1:27 to play.

Santana stalled a minute off the clock and Monte Vista was forced to foul. Matt Panebianco made one of two free throws. Back rebounded the missed second free throw and made a layup to give Santana a five-point lead. Andy Heacock stole the inbounds pass and made a layup to put Santana up by seven, 63-56.

Suddenly, it seemed easy.