CENTURY LEAGUE ROUNDUP : El Modena Beats Foothill for Share of Second Title in a Row

Here’s all you need to know about El Modena’s 49-36 victory over Foothill Friday night: It gave the Vanguards a share of their second consecutive Century League championship.

The game itself wasn’t much to look at. It moved along at a herky-jerky pace, and each team had trouble maintaining momentum, but it was an important victory for El Modena, nevertheless.

El Modena (17-7, 8-2 in the league) tied Santa Ana Valley for the league title. The Vanguards advance as the league’s No. 1 representative to the Southern Section Division II-A playoffs, which begin next week. Santa Ana Valley advances as the No. 1 representative to the Division I-AA playoffs.

Foothill (13-12, 5-5) earned a berth in the Division III-AA playoffs. Heck, everyone makes the playoffs these days, so there shouldn’t have been that much at stake Friday.

El Modena Coach Tim Tivenan wasn’t buying that notion, however.

“We set out to win back-to-back championships at the beginning of the season,” he said.

In the teams’ first meeting Jan. 24, Foothill lulled El Modena into a 45-43 loss with its slow-motion offense, so Tivenan wasn’t taking anything for granted.

“They make us play at a different tempo,” Tivenan said. “They run that offense to death. In a way, that helped us late in the game.”

Even when El Modena scored the game’s first six points, and especially when the Vanguards held a 36-26 lead by the end of the third quarter, Tivenan reminded his team to keep the hammer down.

“We wanted to put a little pressure on them (starting the fourth quarter),” he said. “We didn’t want to get complacent. The hardest thing is to play with a lead.”

When Foothill’s patient, motion offense worked well, it produced nothing but layups. When it didn’t, especially in the second half, the Knights looked tentative and unwilling to hoist a jump shot from beyond 10 feet.

Fact is, Foothill scored all its points in the key, except for a three-point basket and two rather short jumpers.

And aside from 16 points from guard Jared Winger, Foothill had a rough night offensively. He was the only Knight to score in double figures.

Only five El Modena players scored, but four reached double figures, led by Mario Perez’s 14 points.

Gavin Brown had 12 points, Tyler Wood 11 and Fred Forbes 10 for El Modena.

Perez had four points by halftime, but hit three jumpers in the third quarter to push the Vanguards’ 24-22 lead to 36-26.

El Modena’s biggest lead was, 49-34, in the game’s final minute.

In other league games:

Santa Ana Valley 73, Orange 41--Forward Jeff Carolan scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds and Santa Ana Valley won a share of its first league championship in 10 years.

Coach Rich Prospero, in his first season at Santa Ana Valley, led the Falcons to 12-10, 8-2 records. Orange is 8-15, 0-10.

Canyon 46, Villa Park 45--Tony Walker hit an 18-footer with five seconds remaining to carry the Comanches (11-13, 4-6 in league) to victory. Villa Park is 11-12, 5-5. Walker finished with a game-high 17 points.