ORANGE LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Brea-Olinda Nips Western in Three Overtimes, 38-36

In the end, Brea-Olinda basketball Coach Phil Henderson knew the score, but had lost count of the overtimes.

“How many overtimes did we go?” he asked.

Brea-Olinda survived three overtimes, a 14-minute scoring drought and Western’s slow-down offense in a 38-36 Orange League victory Friday night at Western.

Brea’s victory, coupled with Savanna’s loss to Valencia, assures the Wildcats (12-11, 7-1 in league) of the league championship. Brea holds a two-game lead with two games to play and has beaten both Western (14-7, 5-3), last season’s champion, and Savanna (14-8, 5-3) twice.

The Wildcats’ Scott Hole stole a pass by Western’s Neil Hensley and drove for the winning layup with 24 seconds remaining in the third overtime. Chris Jackson’s three-point attempt with five seconds left bounced off the rim.

“We had a foul to give (before going into the bonus) so I told Scott and Gilbert (Arriola) to go get the ball,” Henderson said.

Western had used a spread offense to cut time off the clock since early in the fourth quarter. Both teams traded baskets in the first two minutes of the quarter, but went scoreless through the rest of it and the first two overtimes--a stretch of 14 minutes 6 seconds.

“Is that a county record?” Western Coach Greg Hoffman asked.

Both teams missed opportunities to win it in overtime.

Brea-Olinda center Morgan Brown, who played most of the second half with four fouls, missed the front end of a one-and-one in each of the first two overtimes. Western’s Ed Ingram missed a layup with three seconds left in the first overtime, and Jackson missed a jumper with eight seconds remaining in the second overtime.

Western took a 36-34 lead on a jumper by Jackson with 1:30 left in the third overtime. Mark Chiotti answered with a layup for Brea to tie it with 1:15 left.

Hole took over from there, stealing a bounce pass by Hensley near midcourt and racing down the left side for the game-winning layup.

Brea raced to a 25-19 halftime lead despite Brown, the Wildcats’ 6-foot-8 center, landing in early foul trouble and missing nearly an entire quarter. Still, he scored six points, and his replacement, Jason Celmer contributed six more. Matt Savala came off the bench to score seven points for the Wildcats.

Jackson, who scored 21 points in the teams’ first meeting, was held scoreless in the first half, missing five outside shots over Brea’s zone defense.

Jackson finished with only four points.

In other league games:

Valencia 61, Savanna 52--Adolfo Gomez had 15 points and 11 rebounds as the Tigers improved to 11-9, 4-4. Tobie Priest had 20 for Savanna.

Magnolia 59, Anaheim 40--Aaron Williams scored 25 points for host Magnolia (8-12, 2-6).