GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Brown’s Late Heroics Help Rancho Alamitos Edge Santiago

Marshall Brown’s two field goals in the final 13 seconds gave Rancho Alamitos a 72-69 victory over Santiago in a battle for second place in the Garden Grove League Friday at Rancho Alamitos High.

“We got him (Brown) the ball when he was in the right place at the right time,” said Rancho Alamitos Coach Eric Hamamoto.

Brown, making his first start of the season, scored from inside with 13 seconds remaining to give Rancho Alamitos the lead, 70-69. Then, Garret Fukuda stole the ball, passed to Helmut Bustamante who passed to Brown for the final points with four seconds left. He finished the game with 15 points.

Brown, who had three three-point field goals, then stole a Santiago pass to ensure the victory.

“I love these close ones because they do wonders for your heartbeat,” Hamamoto said.

Rancho Alamitos (11-10) and Santiago (15-7) are tied for second place at 8-4.

“We needed this one,” Santiago Coach Paul Anderson said. “We played horrible, we didn’t get the ball to the right guys at the right time and that last (Rancho Alamitos) basket killed us.”

Santiago trailed Rancho Alamitos by as many as 10 points in the third quarter, but closed the gap on the strength of its three-point plays (two by Con Nguyen, one by Juan Castro in the quarter).

The Cavaliers tied the game, 68-68, when a field goal was awarded to Johnny Pelayo on a goal tending call with 1:42 left. After Fukuda missed a free throw, Santiago’s Tony Soriano (15 points) made the a free throw to give it a 69-68 lead with 1:09 left.

After Rancho Alamitos’ Neravanh Phoneaxy missed a three-pointer, the Cavaliers’ Mike Carrasco missed a critical free throw in the final 28 seconds.

In other league games:

Kennedy 84, La Quinta 45--Jermaine Galloway had nine of his 28 points in the third quarter as the Fighting Irish outscored the Aztecs 21-2 and assured themselves of the league title.

Pat Kunz had 21 and Jeff Cummins 10 for Kennedy (17-6, 12-0). Kevin Doane had 11 for La Quinta (3-19, 2-10).

Garden Grove 64, Bolsa Grande 50--Cornel Archer’s 23 points and seven rebounds gave the visiting Argonauts (9-12, 6-6) the victory.