Prep Basketball : Garden Grove League Roundup : La Quinta Proves Value of Teamwork : Aztecs Win Despite Campbell’s Off Night

Despite having its top player limited to five points, La Quinta High School won its fourth Garden Grove League title in eight years Friday night with a 59-56 victory over Pacifica.

Pacifica held Scott Campbell, Orange County’s scoring leader with a 30-point average, to his season low. But in doing so, Pacifica let Aztec forward James Johnson score a season-high 25 points.

“We are not nearly as one-dimensional as people think we are,” La Quinta Coach Jim Perry said. “They did probably as good of a job as anyone’s done on Scott this year, but people can’t forget, we have other quality players on this team.”

It will be a lesson Pacifica won’t soon forget.

The Mariners can relish the fact that they outrebounded La Quinta, 24-12, and held Campbell to mortal status, but it might take some time to get over the fact that the loss slipped through their fingers in the final minutes.

Pacifica led, 45-43, going into the fourth quarter, but made four critical turnovers which gave La Quinta some easy opportunities to score.

Johnson scored on three consecutive baskets--a 10-foot jumper, a turnaround jumper, and a full-court layup after a steal--to give La Quinta a 51-46 lead with 4:35 remaining.

Pacifica made a run in the game’s final seconds as Bill Mauer scored on an eight-foot jumper and Todd Clendenon scored on a follow shot to cut the deficit to 59-56, but it was too little, too late. La Quinta’s defense smothered Pacifica on its next possession to clinch the victory and advance to the Southern Section 3-A playoffs.

“We did a super job in the first half,” Pacifica Coach Rhett Heckel said. “But in the second half, we tried to go in the paint against them, but they just kept us from scoring. And our turnovers didn’t help.”

The Mariners, who finished seventh in league play the past two seasons, finished fourth.

Dustin Bonham scored 19 points, Randy Schulze 15 and Clendenon 13 to lead Pacifica (14-8 overall, 9-5 in league play).

Scott Linck had 12 points for La Quinta (18-5, 13-1).

Garden Grove 50, Santiago 59--Joe Squyres made two free throws with 33 seconds left to give Garden Grove (5-18, 4-10) the victory at Santiago. Chuck York led Garden Grove with 15 points, and Squyres scored 12. Dana Ripley scored 16 points and Jason Heskett 10 for Santiago (2-17, 2-12).

Los Amigos 79, Bolsa Grande 61--Senior guard Carlos Palomino scored a career-high 41 points to lead host Los Amigos (7-14, 6-8).

Palomino had 21 in the first quarter but only six in the second because of foul trouble. He picked up his third foul with six minutes left in the half and sat out the rest of the way.

He had 11 points in the third quarter and three in the fourth. He came out with about three minutes to play. Bolsa Grande ends the season 2-19, 1-13.