FREEWAY LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Buena Park Closer to Title After Beating Sunny Hills

Buena Park High School, a school that hasn’t won a Freeway League boys’ basketball title outright in 31 years, moved a step closer Friday night by defeating Sunny Hills, 52-50, at Buena Park.

With the victory, Buena Park (15-7, 7-1) moved a game ahead of Sunny Hills (14-7, 6-2) with two games remaining in the regular season.

“I don’t want to start talking league championship yet,” Buena Park Coach Ed Matillo said, “because there are two games left and with this team, nothing is certain.”

However, Matillo, in his third season as the Coyotes’ coach, was more than willing to praise his senior players who endured a 1-18 season two years ago as sophomores.

“I’m really happy for our seniors who have waited a long time to have this,” Matillo said. “I couldn’t be happier.

He was also pleased with the performance of 6-foot-1 forward Angel Barrios, who had 19 points and 12 rebounds despite giving up from four to seven inches to the Sunny Hills front line.

Sunny Hills, the team that has won or shared the past three league titles, had numerous chances to get back into the game in the final minutes, but the Lancers (14-7, 6-2) couldn’t convert any and therefore dropped out of first place.

Buena Park had built a six point lead, 52-46, with 3 mintes 35 seconds remaining when the Lancers’ Kenny Overby scored four consecutive points, on a driving layup and two free throws, that cut the deficit to two with 2:37 left.

But from then on, neither team was able to score.

Buena Park tried its best to delay but missed a couple of shots. But after Prentice Johnson missed a driving layup with about 20 seconds remaining Barrios got one of his six offensive rebounds.

Stone was fouled and missed the front-end of a one-and-one with 11 seconds remaining, but Richard Harvey pulled a rebound away from Terry Mann. After Johnson missed a free throw with six seconds left, Sunny Hills finally got a final chance, but Mann’s desperate, off-balance three-point shot attempt bounced hard off the rim.

In other league games:

Sonora 70, La Habra 62--Chris St. Clair scored 23 points and Wilson Huang added 19 for host Sonora (5-15, 3-5).

Troy 77, Fullerton 66--Randy Abbott, Don Ploughaus and Jim Falletta all scored 15 points to lead host Troy (7-13, 3-5). The Warriors led, 21-14, at the end of the first quarter and did not trail afterward.