CENTURY LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Santa Ana Valley Edges Orange in Slow Motion, 18-17

Anthony Porter, mired in a slump, shook himself free for one second to end a game of cat and mouse.

His buzzer-beating three-pointer gave Santa Ana Valley an 18-17 victory over Orange, in a walk-don’t-run game at Orange. Porter’s shot gave the Falcons second place in the Century League and sent them scurrying into the locker room--their fastest pace of the night.

“I won it, I won it, I won it,” Porter shouted over and over as he ran off the court.

The loss forces Orange (11-13, 5-5 in league) to play Foothill at Foothill tonight to determine the league’s third-place representative in the playoffs.

Santa Ana Valley (14-11, 6-4) had spent most of the game standing and watching, daring the Panthers to come out of their zone defense. Orange would have none of it and let huge chunks of time slip away without even pressuring the ball.

It all seemed to have worked out for the Panthers, as they took a 16-13 lead with 2 minutes 16 seconds left and were up, 17-15, with five seconds to play.

But Porter, who had made only five of his last 40 shots entering the game, took the inbound pass, dribbled baseline and let fly a jumper over Gil Gonzales.

“No one in that gym could have thought that ball was going in,” Falcon Coach Rich Prospero said.

Wrong, coach.

“I knew it was in when it left my hand,” Porter said.

The flurry of activity at the end was in stark contrast to the rest of the game.

Santa Ana Valley had used slow-down tactics in its first game against Orange. The Falcons led, 12-8, at halftime of that game and went on to win, 47-30.

But, just two nights ago, the Falcons had balked on the hold-and-wait strategy against Villa Park and lost, 41-37.

“I chickened out,” Prospero said. “We would hold the ball for 30 seconds, then attack the zone. I wasn’t going to do that tonight.”

Orange wasn’t about to budge, either.

The Falcons held onto the ball the final 7:02 of the first quarter, which ended scoreless. They held it the final 5:05 of the second quarter and led, 9-5. They had stretches of inactivity covering three minutes and two minutes in the third quarter.

Orange did extend its zone, trying to force play, but the Falcons were holding out for a straight man-to-man defense. It was a stalemate.

The Panthers did have their chances down the stretch.

They had a 16-13 lead and the ball, but Gonzales dribbled it off his foot with 1:14 left. They had a chance to go up by three, but Pat Harris made only one of two free throws with 15 seconds left.

That left it in the the hands of Porter. He won it.

In another league game:

Foothill 58, El Modena 52--Justin Bower had 21 points to lead Foothill (10-15, 5-5). Tyler Wood had 15 points to lead El Modena (14-12, 8-2).