Buena Finds 600 Good Reasons to Celebrate

Basketball is a game of runs. The team with the longest run usually wins.

Buena High’s run has extended 25 years.

And the Bulldogs have won more than their share of girls’ basketball games during that time.

Six hundred, to be exact.

Their 42-32 victory over Ventura in a Channel League game on Thursday night at Ventura was the 600th in Coach Joe Vaughan’s career.

No other program in the state has ever won more than 550 games. Vaughan holds a 230-victory lead over his next-closest pursuer in the region.

But those numbers were unimportant to the man who took over Buena’s program before the 1975-76 season.

“The game itself and what it meant to this team in the league was the most important thing,” said Vaughan, who improved to 600-66.

What it did was give the Bulldogs (16-4, 4-0 in league play) sole possession of first place over Ventura (17-1, 3-1) and the inside track for their 12th consecutive league championship.

It also avenged a 60-57 loss to the Cougars on Dec. 11 in the Buena tournament final.

That Ventura victory ended a 13-game losing streak to Buena, propelled the Cougars to the top of The Times’ regional poll and built a level of excitement not seen in the community in several years.

An overflow crowd of more than 1,200 packed Ventura’s gymnasium by halftime of the junior varsity game Thursday night.

Ticket sales were stopped 25 minutes before the varsity game started, leaving many fans locked out.

“What was not to be nervous about?” asked Buena’s Kelly Greathouse, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds. “The whole community was here tonight.”

They witnessed Buena, ranked No. 2 in the region and No. 25 in the nation, and Ventura exchange body blows through the first half before the Bulldogs landed the haymaker in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs took an 11-0 lead.

Ventura, attempting to defeat Buena at home for the first time since Jan. 23, 1982, responded with a 15-2 run for a 15-13 lead.

The Cougars led, 24-22, in the final seconds of the first half, when Buena’s Courtney Young made a three-point basket from midcourt at the buzzer.

Ventura never led again.

The Cougars scored only one point in the third quarter and made only three of 18 shots after intermission.

Division I-bound players Alex Gientke and Kristine Gleisberg, who had combined to average more than 31 points, scored only 10 against Buena, two in the second half.

Renee Jiminez led the Cougars with 11 points. Gleisberg scored her only basket with 2:00 to play.

“I have absolutely no idea what the deal was,” said Gientke, who had eight points, all in the first half. “We were really sluggish.”

Greathouse got hot in the third quarter, scoring nine of her team’s 11 points as Buena took a 36-25 lead.

Young finished with 14 points. Courtney LaVere added six points and 13 rebounds.

Coach Glenn Gray II of Ventura has seen his team climb to No. 3 in the state rankings and ninth in a Western Region poll. He isn’t panicking after its first loss.

“We’re having a great season with great players and great kids,” he said.

“One game doesn’t change that.”