GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE : Kennedy Wins in Rout to Clinch Share of Title

Kennedy had one simple task to perform Wednesday night: punch out Rancho Alamitos and clinch at least a share of the Garden Grove League championship.

The Fighting Irish landed an 88-51 haymaker that was every bit as lopsided as the score indicates.

It’s becoming an annual affair.

Wednesday’s victory gave the Irish four consecutive league championships and five in the last six seasons. What’s more, the Irish are closing in on their second consecutive undefeated league season. And they haven’t lost in their gym since Rancho Alamitos knocked them off two seasons ago.

It would seem Kennedy is quickly running out of hurdles to clear, and that concerns Coach John Mayberry going into the final three regular season games.

“We want to go ahead and stay undefeated in league play and keep our CIF (Southern Section) ranking,” Mayberry said.

Kennedy (20-3, 11-0 in the Garden Grove League) is third-ranked in Orange County and No. 7 in the Southern Section Division II. Rancho Alamitos, which went into the game in second place, is 10-11, 6-5.

But if Wednesday was any indication the gulf between first and second is enormous.

Rancho Alamitos kept it close for a while, but a 15-5 Kennedy run to begin the second quarter put the game out of reach. By outscoring Rancho Alamitos, 28-7, in the second quarter, Kennedy turned a 15-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter to 43-16 by halftime.

The second half was downright ugly. Kennedy’s lead kept growing and growing.

It finally topped out at 78-37 after a three-point basket by Paul Pappas midway through the fourth quarter.

When it was over, someone suggested to Mayberry that this was as good as Kennedy has played this season. He didn’t disagree.

“We’ve got three games to go before the playoffs,” Mayberry said. “We want to work on our bench and give our subs a little more playing time.”

Patrick Kunz led the Irish with 31 points and 12 rebounds, Pappas added 20 points and Jeff Cummins had 14 points.

Marshall Brown’s 10 points led Rancho Alamitos.

In other league games:

Los Amigos 42, Bolsa Grande 38--Mark Dillon had 11 of his 16 points in the fourth and also had four steals to lead Los Amigos (6-14, 5-6).

Pacifica 48, La Quinta 42--Ryan Teague scored 13 points for Pacifica (11-8, 6-5), which survived a late La Quinta rally. Kevin Doane scored 12 for La Quinta.