La Quinta Gets Bad News but Wins
There weren’t many happy faces for La Quinta when the Aztecs entered Pacifica’s gymnasium Friday night for what should have been a battle for the top spot in the Garden Grove League.
But La Quinta turned the showdown into a mowdown with a 47-34 boys’ basketball victory.
Todd Butt scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds and teammate Fang Li added 15 points and seven rebounds for La Quinta, but the tone for this one was set much earlier in the day.
That’s when La Quinta Athletic Director Jim Perry discovered that a little-used reserve was illegally enrolled in the La Quinta attendance district, forcing the Aztecs to forfeit four league victories. La Quinta dropped from a first-place tie with Pacifica to the bottom of the seven-team league.
“You have no idea what it means for some kid to come into our school and take away four wins by cheating like that,” La Quinta Coach Craig Snyder said after the game. “You have no way of knowing what it feels like. All I want to do is make the playoffs. That’s all we can work for.”
The teams combined to commit 28 turnovers and were whistled for 34 fouls. Pacifica made only 11 of 36 field-goal attempts. La Quinta hit 14 of 33, four of those were three-pointers by Butt. And three of those came in the first half as the Aztecs, who never trailed, built a 28-18 lead.
“It’s hard to be tied for first in the morning and then come here and be in last,” said Butt, a 6-foot-3 wing. “But I just wanted to beat Pacifica. I don’t know the last time we beat them in their own gym.”
The Mariners, showing a bit of rust from a bye week, scored only one field goal on a driving layin by guard Ryan Caraveo in the third quarter. Meanwhile, La Quinta held the ball and scored only five points.
La Quinta settled this one down the stretch in the fourth quarter, when Li made several key free throws.
“It was an ugly game all the way around,” Pacifica Coach Bob Becker said. “We came into our court and played so badly. That was the poorest I have seen us play.”
In another Garden Grove League game:
Los Amigos 75, Bolsa Grande 56--Matt Doss had 15 points and Mike Higgins added 14 for visiting Los Amigos (11-9, 3-3), which outscored Bolsa Grande, 57-26, in the second and third quarters. Crispin Chavez scored 16 points for Bolsa Grande (8-11, 3-3).