Rancho Santiago Heads Back to the State Championship : Basketball: Dons roll to a 96-76 victory over Compton. They’ll meet Long Beach tonight in bid for second consecutive title.

Rancho Santiago found that form for about 30 minutes Friday, the one that has people saying this might be the best community college team in the state in years.

Compton was the unfortunate victim as the Dons rolled to a 96-76 victory in one semifinal of the state tournament in front of about 2,000 at the Bren Center.

The victory moves Rancho Santiago (34-2) to the championship game for the second consecutive season. Rancho Santiago defeated Chabot, 72-65, last year for the school’s first state basketball title.

Rancho Santiago will have to play at least as well again tonight to get past Long Beach, which defeated Cypress, 84-56, in Friday’s first semifinal.

The teams met once this season on Nov. 24 and Rancho Santiago won, 108-79, for the championship in the College of the Desert Tournament.

But no one expects any such blowout tonight.

“It’s kind of funny,” Rancho Santiago Coach Dana Pagett said. “The game just ended but we have little time to savor the victory because now we have to worry about Long Beach.”

A victory tonight by the Dons would make them the first team to win consecutive titles since Riverside did it in 1966. Riverside, then coached by current Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian, also won titles in 1964 and 1965. Tarkanian went to Pasadena and won another title in 1967.

Rancho Santiago, which has not played well in the opening minutes of its previous four playoff games, was on from the start despite a loud Compton following.

The Dons led, 20-19, with 10:13 left when freshman forward Daryl Cole made a three-pointer and freshman guard Glenn Greene followed with another to put the Dons ahead, 26-19, with 9:40 left. And the Dons’ fans made plenty of noise of their own.

Rancho Santiago hit 10 of 14 three-pointers, including four each from Greene (14 points) and Brett Pagett (15 points). Cole added 14.

“My first couple of shots were off,” said Greene, a redshirt last season. “But I felt good and I knew they would start to fall. This is great playing; it was tough to just watch last season.”

Greene also was assigned to defend Compton’s Steve Logan, who leads the state in scoring at 37 points a game. Logan finished with 36, including seven three-pointers, but scored only six in the first half.

“It was an honor to guard him,” Greene said. “I thought I did a good job in the first half. I knew I couldn’t shut him down but I stayed after him the whole time.”

Rancho Santiago’s sharp outside shooting opened the inside game for forward Erik Martin and center Corie Blount. Each had 20 points. Martin had 17 rebounds and Blount seven.

Martin has 335 rebounds this season, one short of the Rancho Santiago single-season record of 336 by Joel Washington set in the 1982-83 season.

Rancho Santiago ended the first half on an upturn when LaVern Broadnax stole an inbounds pass with one second left and made a layup to give the Dons a 54-34 lead. Greene had made a three-pointer just seven seconds before.

Compton ends at 28-7.