COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Saddleback Stops Rancho Santiago’s Winning Streak at 22

Saddleback College made 13 of 14 free-throw attempts in the final 3 1/2 minutes to upset top-ranked Rancho Santiago, 82-77, in an Orange Empire Conference game Wednesday in Mission Viejo.

The loss ended the Dons’ school-record winning streak at 22 games. It also reduces Rancho Santiago lead over second-place Cypress to one game with five games left in conference. Saddleback is third, two games back.

Rancho Santiago (25-2, 7-1 in conference) last led at 59-57 with 8:43 left before Ray Ankton helped put Saddleback (14-10, 5-3) ahead. He scored Saddleback’s next eight points and the Gauchos led, 65-62, with 5:20 left.

On Saddleback’s next possession, Ankton missed a short shot, but Patrick Brown followed with a dunk for a five-point lead.

From that point, Edmond Johnson took over at the free-throw line. He made a pair at 3:26 to give Saddleback a 69-65 lead. Saddleback led by no less than four points the rest of the way.

Johnson made eight of eight free throws, Greg Reynolds made four of for and Matt Thompson made one of two in the final 3:26. Saddleback was 14 of 17 at the line in the second half and 19 of 28 for the game.

Dee Boyer, Saddleback’s center, capped the victory by stuffing Corie Blount’s last-second dunk attempt into the backboard.

Saddleback’s scoring was balanced, with Johnson scoring 18 points, Brown 16, Boyer 15, Reynolds 11 and Ankton 10. Rancho Santiago got 25 points from Erik Martin, 21 from Blount and 13 from Brett Pagett. The Dons’ other starters--LaVern Broadnax and Glenn Greene--totaled 11 points, and Rancho Santiago got only seven points from four players off the bench.

Saddleback tried to control the tempo by stalling for 30 seconds on several possessions in each half.

“We knew their inside guys (Martin and Blount) would get their points,” Saddleback Coach Bill Brummel said. “So we tried to concentrate on the outside guys. We slowed it down because they couldn’t score if they didn’t have the ball.”

Rancho Santiago was coming off its two most difficult victories of the season. The Dons had defeated Cypress, 106-105, in overtime and blew most of a 23-point lead before rallying for a 99-87 victory over Riverside on Jan. 23.

“This has been a tough stretch for us,” Rancho Santiago Coach Dana Pagett said. “We didn’t play really too poorly or too well tonight, but obviously we lost.”

In other men’s games:

Cypress 94, Riverside 85--Eric Pauley scored 27 points and Brian Kenney 20 for host Cypress (19-9, 6-2).

Fullerton 100, Golden West 81--Bob Terry scored 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and Gary Lira scored 16 points for host Fullerton (13-13, 2-6). Tom Dever had a game-high 28 points for Golden West (11-15, 3-5).

In a women’s game:

Golden West 61, Fullerton 52--Jennifer Harney scored 22 points for top-ranked host Golden West (26-1, 8-0), which won its 18th consecutive game.