Orange Coast Can’t Stop Santa Ana From Winning Its Seventh in a Row
Orange Coast, the last Orange Empire Conference team to beat Santa Ana, was no match for the Dons this time. Santa Ana beat the visiting Pirates, 83-60, Friday.
The victory was the seventh in a row for Santa Ana, which has shown vast improvement since starting the season with four consecutive losses.
The Dons have greatly increased their intensity in the last three weeks, are diving for loose balls more than ever, and winning because of hustle and desire as much as talent.
“This is exciting,” Santa Ana Coach Dana Pagett said, “the guys have really come on.”
Santa Ana can close out the title race with a victory against second-place Fullerton Wednesday night.
Orange Coast had beaten Santa Ana, 106-91, on Jan. 21 and the Pirates figured to have a good shot Friday, but the game really wasn’t close after the first 10 minutes. Santa Ana’s Jimmy Alapag made a three-pointer with about 15 seconds left in the first half that put the Dons ahead 46-32.
Orange Coast started the second half with an 8-2 spurt to get within eight. But Jehovany Barraza had a basket to extend the lead to 50-40 with 15 minutes 43 seconds left.
Next came the wildest sequence of the game. Santa Ana’s Lohnnie Tape had the ball stolen and was knocked down while Santa Ana was on offense.
By the time he got up, Santa Ana had stolen the ball and Chris Mattice (13 points) passed to Tape who soared in for a dunk.
Tape, who was fouled and knocked down on the play, got up and received a chest bump from Barraza who was caught up in the emotion of the play. Tape returned the favor with a wide smile when Barraza came out of the game in the final minute.
Tape finished with 19 and Mark Saukkola had 16, including four three-pointers. Barraza added 12, 10 in the second half. Mike Vogeding had 10, all in the first half, also for Santa Ana.
Shaun Jackson scored 18 but fouled out with 5:31 left for Orange Coast (17-11, 6-6).
In other men’s games:
Fullerton 62, Saddleback 57--Ben Sanders scored 18 points and Erick Ashe had 15 for visiting Fullerton (20-8, 8-4), which led at the half, 35-23. Fullerton forward Edwin Charles was called for a flagrant foul and ejected. He will have to sit out the Hornets’ game with Santa Ana Wednesday.
Vernon Jackson scored 24 for Saddleback (10-18, 5-7).
Irvine Valley 67, Golden West 61--Reserve Ben Esplin scored 16 points and Commander King had 14 and Matt Houser 13 as host Irvine Valley (19-10, 7-5) stopped a three-game skid. Irvine Valley is tied for third with Riverside.
Golden West (6-23, 1-11) led by a point at halftime but was outscored 40-33 in the second half. Mark Perry had 22 and Charles Johnson added 15 for the Rustlers.
Riverside 84, Cypress 78--Cypress was down by nine with about four minutes left but host Cypress cut it to four, 82-78, on a three-pointer by Fred Williams with 55 seconds left.
Riverside’s Danny Sampson made two free throws down the stretch for Riverside (21-11, 7-5). Andre Lamoureux had 24 points and 15 points for Cypress (14-15, 5-7).