Prep Review : Dana Hills and Corona del Mar Go to Great Lengths in Search of Victory

Things got wild and wacky in Dana Hills High School’s 68-67, quadruple-overtime victory over Corona del Mar Tuesday in the South Coast Christmas basketball tournament.

The game started just after 8:30 p.m. Before reserve forward Aaron Earnest’s 3-point shot ended the game at 11 p.m.:

--The fans had been treated to a 6-point play that set up the first overtime period.

--First-year Dana Hills Coach Rick Skelton had been ejected for the first time in his 25-year coaching career.

--And Corona del Mar Coach Paul Orris had split his pants.

The play: This game began where most games end. With 46 seconds to play and Dana Hills trailing, 48-42, Dana Hills’ Chris Delfs made a 3-point shot as teammate John Lloyd was fouled under the basket.

Lloyd went to the free-throw line with the score, 48-45. He made the front end of the 1-and-1 to make the score, 48-46. His second free throw was short but teammate Kevin O’Neill tipped it in to send the game into overtime at 48-48.

“The rules now have caused some bigger swings in possible big plays . . . the possession rule which replaced the jump ball, the intentional foul rule, the 3-point shot,” Skelton said. “Games that one time seemed secure are not.”

The ejection: The Dana Hills bench already had received two technical fouls when Skelton was whistled for one for being outside the coaching box.

Three fouls on the bench and the coach automatically is ejected.

“I was sitting down and I didn’t think (the technical foul) was warranted,” Skelton said.

“There was a little confusion as to where the coaching box was. . . . The original box was still there, and a new one was put down to start the second half, and I didn’t know about it.”

Skelton, who coached at San Clemente High School from 1977-81 and has assisted at Saddleback College since 1983, said he had never been ejected from a game until official Jim Burdette did so Tuesday. Skelton said he will write letters to the Southern Section and the Orange County Basketball Officials Assn. to express his concern over the officiating.

Burdette also was one of the officials on the Santa Clara-Edison game in the South Coast Christmas tournament Wednesday.

Santa Clara’s 39-38 loss was its first of the season, and Santa Clara Coach Lou Cvijanovich, angry about the officiating, pulled his team out of the tournament after that game.

Security personnel escorted the officials from the gym after the game. Burdette could not be reached for comment.

“Jim is his own man,” said Speed Castillo, president of the officials association. “He’s aggressive, and he’s going to call a game his way,”

Burdette has been officiating for the association for more than 9 years.

Castillo said he plans to talk with Burdette next week about the incident and file a report with the Southern Section on Skelton’s ejection.

The rip: Corona del Mar’s Orris, whose pants ripped from the crotch all the way up the back during one of the overtime periods said, “It’s embarrassing, but what can you do in that situation? You can either worry about the way you look or you can coach.

“A few of the kids were trying to shield me from the crowd during timeouts,” he said. But someone with a video camera did shoot some footage, according to a couple of the players. “I’m sure that will come back to haunt me somewhere down the line,” Orris said.

Turnabout: Dana Hills has already surpassed last season’s victory total. The Dolphins are 12-4. Last season they were 9-14.

It is lonely in the ranks of the undefeated. In fact, it is downright vacant. The last two undefeated boys’ basketball teams in the county--Fountain Valley and Estancia--were knocked from their pedestals in tournament play Thursday night.

Mater Dei, the top-ranked team in the Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. prep basketball poll, lost to Saddleback for the second time this season, 57-53, in the finals of the Orange Holiday tournament.

Mater Dei (14-2) lost to Saddleback, 59-56, in triple overtime in the championship game of the Newport/Mesa tournament earlier this season.

The Monarchs handed second-ranked Fountain Valley its first loss this season, 76-66, in the semifinals of the Orange Holiday tournament at Chapman College. Then seventh-ranked Capistrano Valley beat Fountain Valley, 85-70, in the third-place game. Fountain Valley is 10-2.

Fifth-ranked Irvine (11-1) defeated sixth-ranked Estancia, 55-50, in the semifinals of the South Coast Christmas tournament at Estancia.

The Eagles are 11-1.

Jim Harris, Ocean View basketball coach, checked his team into the Alexis Resort for the Las Vegas tournament Dec. 26-29 because it has no casino.

“I must be the John Thompson of high school coaches,” Harris said. “We have traveled all over the country, and I have never had any problems with my team. I am not going to start now.”

Las Vegas probably has the most temptation of anywhere, he said. “It is like New Year’s Eve every night of the week.

“When I got there I asked myself, ‘Can I go do some gambling?’ Then I said wait a minute. I’m here for basketball. If I don’t concentrate on basketball they won’t. It was a basketball trip. It just happened to be in Las Vegas.”

Harris said the players did not complain about the arrangements in front of him, but he thought they were “a little stunned.”

“After our last game we went to Circus Circus. Then we went to a place that had bowling and movies. I’m sure they probably got a couple of slots in somewhere around there.”

Ocean View lost in the consolation championship, 64-61, to Lincoln High School of New York.

Santa Ana and Mission Viejo dropped from the ranks of the unbeaten in boys’ soccer Thursday in the Fountain Valley-Marina tournament. Palos Verdes, the top-ranked 4-A school in the Southern California High School Soccer Coaches’ Assn. preseason poll, defeated Mission Viejo in the semifinals and Santa Ana in the final.

The Saints, who were unranked in Division 3-A in the preseason soccer poll, won their 16-team Santa Ana Elks tournament title. They defeated two ranked 4-A schools--Mater Dei (No. 4) and Fountain Valley ( No. 5).

In the latest 3-A poll, released Sunday, Santa Ana (10-1-3) is second behind Mission Viejo (12-1-0).

Referee Louie Penaflor took some heat from Mission Viejo soccer fans in the third-place game between the Diablos and Fountain Valley in the Fountain Valley-Marina boys’ tournament Thursday.

Penaflor’s brother, Joey, is the goalkeeper for Fountain Valley, and at least one Mission Viejo fan thought that might have some bearing on the official’s judgment.

When Penaflor’s offsides call negated what appeared to be a Mission Viejo goal, some fans took exception.

“They got a little upset. . . . A fan had some choice words for me and my brother in goal,” Penaflor said.

“I didn’t necessarily want to do the game because there was family involved. But I took it because it is my responsibility. It is also my responsibility to call a fair game and keep all the athletes healthy.”

Mission Viejo won, 3-1.

Joey might have had a tougher day than his brother. Thursday morning, he had to play Santa Ana in the tournament’s semifinals, a game Fountain Valley lost, 2-0. Joey’s father, Manuel, is an assistant coach at Santa Ana.