GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Kennedy Gets Best of Feisty Garden Grove

Third-ranked Kennedy was looking for a little competition and some excitement before heading into the Southern Section playoffs.

It got both Friday night with feisty Garden Grove, who scrapped and clawed for three quarters before falling 62-46 at Kennedy Friday night.

Kennedy point guard Steve Vetica, who usually distributes the ball, began looking at the basket in the fourth quarter and scored seven of his nine points to put Garden Grove away.

“I don’t shoot the ball a whole lot, but when it gets down to crunch time I do what needs to be done,” said Vetica, who added eight assists and three steals.

Kennedy (18-3, 9-0) was having a miserable shooting night and needed someone to make a couple shots as Garden Grove (10-10, 6-4) trailed 50-42 with six minutes remaining.

So Vetica, who had attempted only three shots all night, turned into a shooter. He drove the lane and hit a lay up to improve the lead to 10. Two minutes later, Vetica drove past two Garden Grove defenders for a three-point play to give Kennedy a 59-46 lead. He followed that with two free throws.

“Our quarterback took over,” Kennedy Coach John Mayberry said.

But the Argonauts helped Kennedy by going cold and losing their cool just as they appeared to be making one final run. After Cornel Archer’s basket cut the lead to eight, Garden Grove had problems penetrating Kennedy’s zone defense and scored only four points the rest of the way.

Things almost became too intense at the end of the third quarter as Kennedy center Rich Anderson was called for a technical, and word fights came dangerously close to physical fights.

“We have kind of a rivalry with Garden Grove,” said Kennedy guard Paul Pappas, who had 16 points and seven steals. “But I guess we have a rivalry with a lot of teams in this league. They all want to beat us.”

In other league games:

La Quinta 53, Los Amigos 48--Kevin Doane and Greg Greenfield each had 14 points to lead La Quinta (6-13, 4-6).

Mark Dillan had 21 points for Los Amigos, and Jeff Martel added 19 points.

Pacifica 64, Rancho Alamitos 54--After trailing by 10 after one quarter, visiting Pacifica (10-7, 5-4) rallied to tie the score at the half. Pacifica held Rancho Alamitos to eight points in each of the second and third quarters. Chris Vlasic had 22 points for Pacifica. David Guzman had 15 points, Ed Taylor had 13 points and Helmut Bustamante had 12 points and 16 rebounds for Rancho Alamitos (11-10, 6-3).

Santiago 59, Bolsa Grande 41--Center Johnny Pelayo scored 16 points and guard Joe Nguyen added 15 points for host Santiago (7-12, 3-6). Bolsa Grande is 6-13, 1-8.