BOYS’ ROUNDUP : Garden Grove Staves Off Los Amigos’ Comeback

Clayton Olivier, Los Amigos High School basketball coach, is finding victories much harder to come by than he did when he was playing 10 years ago in the Garden Grove League.

Olivier, halfway through his rookie season as a coach, watched Los Amigos stage a good comeback before losing to league-leading Garden Grove, 77-70, Monday night at Los Amigos. It was the Lobos’ 11th loss in 13 games and third consecutive in league play.

Olivier was once a dominating center in the county during a highly publicized three-year career at Los Amigos from 1978-80. Olivier earned the nickname “Big Red” by leading Los Amigos to three consecutive league titles. He later graduated to a successful career at USC.

Since Olivier’s departure, the basketball program has fallen on hard times. Los Amigos has failed to win another league title since Olivier’s playing days. The Lobos struggled to an 18-48 record over the past three years.

This year, school officials turned to Olivier to help turn around what was one of the county’s top programs. Judging by Monday night’s performance, Olivier has his work cut out for him.

“We were very competitive during the summer, and I honestly thought I could turn things around in one year,” Olivier said. That was before Olivier dismissed his best player, returning all-league forward Andre Roberson, from the team for disciplinary reasons before the start of the season.

“I started two sophomores and two juniors tonight,” Olivier said. “We’re a young team, and we make young mistakes. But I think we’ll be more competitive in the second half of league play.”

Los Amigos was certainly more competitive in the second half against Garden Grove (7-6, 3-0 in league) after falling behind by 21 points in the second quarter. Garden Grove made 20 of 39 field-goal attempts in the first half against a very soft Los Amigos zone.

Guard Eddie Benson scored 15 of his game-high 26 points in the second half to rally Los Amigos. Teammate Derrick Ragsdale cut Garden Grove’s lead to 67-63 with 3 minutes 11 seconds remaining when he stole a pass and scored on a layup.

But Los Amigos was guilty of three consecutive turnovers that gave Garden Grove three easy baskets, and Olivier was left once again to contemplate what might have been.

“I told the kids if we cut the lead in half in the third quarter, we could give them a game,” Olivier said, “and that’s just what happened. But we got to within four points, and then threw the game away. We’re still learning.”

Garden Grove forward Mark Perry and guard Joe Aguire helped to turn back Los Amigos down the stretch. Perry made three consecutive shots in the final three minutes and finished with 23 points.

Perry was coming off last week’s 40-point performance against Santiago, in which he came within seven points of Mark Baker’s school single-game scoring record. Aguire added 20 points and seven assists.

Afterward, Dewey Van Cleave, Garden Grove coach, said he feared a letdown in the second half after the Argonauts had cruised to a big first-half lead.

“The guys were real quiet in the locker room,” Van Cleave said. “I could feel it (letdown) coming. The players read where Los Amigos loses to Santiago by 16 points and we beat Santiago by 27 points. They figured the game was over at halftime.”

In other Garden Grove League games:

Pacifica 95, Santiago 60--Guard Kevin Gaughen, coming off a 41-point performance against La Quinta last week, scored 38 points for Pacifica (6-5, 2-1). Gaughen is averaging 25.2 points.

Kennedy 88, Bolsa Grande 58--Brian Faddoul scored 21 points and Jermaine Galloway had 20 points and 19 rebounds for host Kennedy (6-7, 3-0). Kennedy had a 21-6 lead at the end of the first quarter and continued to roll. The Fighting Irish led, 44-19, at the half.

Rancho Alamitos 68, La Quinta 59--Visiting Rancho Alamitos trailed by two at the half but outscored La Quinta, 29-14, in the third quarter to take control.

In Angelus League soccer:

Santa Margarita 3, Loyola 1--Jerome Pierce, John Keller and Oscar Mestre scored in the second half for visiting Santa Margarita (7-5-1, 1-0) in the league opener for both teams.