SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS : Santa Ana Stops Buena on Tough 1st-Half Defense

Santa Ana High School’s 74-70 victory over Buena in a Southern Section 4-A boys’ basketball quarterfinal game Friday at Rancho Santiago College came down to speed.

There was the raw athletic speed of Santa Ana that allowed it to deny, intimidate and dominate Buena defensively in the first half. There was the speed by which Buena’s shooters shot their team back into the game in the second half, after looking very much like a beaten team.

It was a game clearly cut into halves, with each team winning one.

Santa Ana (26-3), which will play Simi Valley in the semifinals Tuesday, held Buena without a field goal for the first 5:40 of the game. It held an eight-point lead at the end of the first quarter (19-11), and increased that to 16 (37-21) at the intermission.

“I thought our defensive effort was outstanding in the first half,” Greg Coombs, Santa Ana coach, said.

A fair assessment since Buena came into the game having scored more than 90 points in its first two playoff games.

“To hold a team that can score as much as Buena to 21 points in a half, I thought that was great,” Coombs said.

Santa Ana did it by denying passing lanes and straight out stealing the ball from Buena guards Jeff Oliver and Mike Sandoval. In the second quarter alone, Santa Ana made seven steals which resulted in 11 points.

But in the third quarter, Buena, which had bruised both backboard and rim for most of the first half, began to find the range.

First, it was forward Adan Valencia, who scored nine points in the first six minutes of the quarter, most from 15 feet out. Then it was Oliver, a sophomore, who made two straight three-point shots in the last minute of the quarter to draw Buena within 10 (57-47).

Oliver, who ended the game with 18 points, made a three-pointer five seconds into the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 57-50. Buena center Sean Kirkeby made a jumper and it was 57-52.

But Santa Ana center Bobby Joyce (23 points, 14 rebounds) built the lead to 61-52 with a short jumper and a dunk off a steal. Oscar Wilson’s dunk with a little more than five minutes remaining put Santa Ana ahead, 65-54.

But another Buena outside shooting barrage, capped by Mike Sandoval’s 18-footer, cut the lead to six, 67-61.

What followed in the last two minutes was a game of foul and rebound. Santa Ana was unable to nail down the victory until practically the buzzer because it made just three of eight free throws in the last two minutes.

When Scootie Lynwood (11 points, 12 assists) missed the second half of a one-and-one opportunity, Buena answered with a three-point shot by Sandoval that brought Buena to within three, 73-70, with 24 seconds left.

Fouled again, Lynwood made the front end of a one-and-one, but missed the second shot. However, Buena’s last gasp was snuffed out when Joyce rebounded the miss and was fouled with 16 seconds.

Joyce missed the free throw, but Buena could not manage another long shot.