GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Galloway, Defense Never Rest as Kennedy Beats Garden Grove

Kennedy High School’s 6-foot-9 Jermaine Galloway is perhaps the most dominant force in the league this season.

But despite a game-high 30 points by the all-league center, Coach John Mayberry was equally impressed by the way the Fighting Irish played defense in beating host Garden Grove, 58-49, Friday night.

“Our goal is to hold every team under 50 points and we did,” Mayberry said.

Kennedy, which at 7-0 (10-7 overall) maintained sole possession of first place in the league, has accomplished that task in six of its past seven games.

Regardless of how well it performs defensively, however, Kennedy has to be able to score to win. That’s where Galloway comes in.

Galloway, who has led Kennedy in scoring in every game this year and who went into the game averaging 24.6 points and 11.5 rebounds, again provided the spark offensively for the Fighting Irish despite being double- and triple-teamed.

He was particularly effective in the third quarter, when he scored 15 of his team’s 21 points to help the Fighting Irish take a 42-33 lead going into the final quarter.

Galloway also caused the biggest roar from the near-capacity crowd when he missed a wide-open slam dunk attempt midway through the fourth quarter. But there wasn’t much Galloway did wrong otherwise.

“When we need him, he’s there,” said Mayberry.

Garden Grove (8-9, 4-3), one of the preseason favorites to win the league, has fallen on hard times lately, losing three of its last four games. The Argonauts played Kennedy even in the final quarter, but it was too late.

The Argonauts got 23 points from the guard Mark Perry, who entered the game with a 25.7 average, but not enough from his supporting cast. Perry scored seven of Garden Grove’s nine points in the first quarter and eight of the Argonauts’ 16 points in the final quarter.

Kennedy, on the other hand, gave Galloway plenty of help on both ends of the court. Senior forward Brian Cline contributed 16 points and sophomore forward Jeff Cummins had 17 rebounds for the Fighting Irish.

Mayberry said he felt optimistic before the game started.

“We’ve never played real well in this gym, but I knew we would get through the night,” he said. “That was a very intense game.”

In other league games:

Pacifica 96, Rancho Alamitos 75--Scott Lesser scored 30 points and Kevin Gaughen added 22 for host Pacifica (10-5, 6-1 in league). Nervanah Phonexay had 18 for Rancho Alamitos (6-8, 3-4).

Santiago 51, Bolsa Grande 49--Mike Carrasco, who led all scorers with 23 points, scored a three-pointer with 11 seconds left to tie the score at 47-47 for Santiago (4-10, 3-4). Sy Sayarath scored 15 points for Bolsa Grande (5-10, 3-4).

La Quinta 72, Los Amigos 58--Lloyd Bennett scored 29 points and Dusty DePree added 17 for host La Quinta (5-10, 2-5). Eddie Benson had nine points for Los Amigos.