BOYS’ PREP BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : La Quinta’s Troubles Continue as Kennedy Rolls to 98-39 Victory

La Quinta High School’s long season continued Monday night with the Aztecs still searching for their first victory of the 1989-90 season.

Kennedy handed host La Quinta its worst loss of a forgettable season, 98-39, in a Garden Grove League game that was never close after the opening five minutes.

Kennedy (5-6, 2-1) scored 13 unanswered points to open a 17-4 lead in the first quarter and extended the margin to 28-8 at the end of the period.

Kennedy Coach John Mayberry substituted freely and played underclassmen for most of the fourth quarter.

La Quinta committed 28 turnovers, shot only 29% from the field and missed 20 free throws. What’s more, the Aztecs watched Kennedy sophomore center Jeramine Galloway block five consecutive shots in the final five minutes.

It’s hard to believe this was happening to La Quinta, which won six Garden Grove League titles in the 1980s.

The ‘90s version of La Quinta basketball is young and inexperienced, which showed against Kennedy.

Coach Jim Perry anticipated a long year when his only returning starter, Trent Julian, was lost for the season after undergoing knee surgery for a football injury. But Perry likely never envisioned an airball on a free throw or his team’s sloppy ballhandling.

“I’ve been on that end before,” Mayberry said. “We went 1-19 in 1982, but we never lost games like they did tonight. The encouraging thing is that this league is balanced to where there are good teams and average teams. They could bounce back and win their next four games.”

La Quinta (0-11, 0-3) opened league play against favorites Pacifica, Rancho Alamitos and Kennedy. Next up are Garden Grove, Bolsa Grande, Santiago and Los Amigos, all of which have losing records.

Kennedy got strong play from its front line of Jim Barker, Billy Williams and Galloway to remain one game behind leader Rancho Alamitos in the eight-team league. Barker led all scorers with 21 points while Williams had 19 points and 15 rebounds.

Galloway, a 6-foot-8 sophomore center, had 13 points, nine rebounds and blocked nine shots. “We’re playing together better and we’re playing much harder,” Mayberry said. “I was very encouraged tonight. I think we have a good shot at the league title.”

In other Garden Grove League boys’ basketball games:

Pacifica 52, Los Amigos 47--Visiting Pacifica trailed by as many as 10 points before rallying. Randy Schulze scored 14 points for Pacifica. Andy Fraser had 10 points for Los Amigos (0-9, 0-3), which trailed by one with a minute left.

Garden Grove 57, Bolsa Grande 52--Tracy Beasely had 16 points and eight rebounds to lead host Garden Grove (5-7, 3-0). Mark Perry had 13 points and 14 rebounds and Bob Ioja had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Argonauts. Hihn Bui added 17 points for Bolsa Grande.

Rancho Alamitos 66, Santiago 55--David Green had 14 points and 17 rebounds and Richard Pearce added 14 points to lead Rancho Alamitos (9-3, 3-0). Sonny Lim’s 15 points led Santiago (4-7, 0-3).