Santa Ana Coach Zach Johnson congratulates center Emmanuel Lemus after Wednesday’s win. Luis Sandoval (left) and Jack Rivera (No. 31) also contributed to the win. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Santa Ana High School’s boys basketball team started strong but had to withstand a fourth quarter charge by Estancia in Wednesday’s Orange Coast League game to defeat the Eagles 66-55 at Santa Ana.
Santa Ana (14-5, 3-3) won its third league game in a row and fifth overall. But Estancia (14-7, 3-3) gave the Saints all they could handle outscoring Santa Ana 20-11 in the third quarter to make it close down the stretch.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Santa Ana led 51-46 after three quarters. Estancia cut the lead to three early in the fourth quarter but the Saints got big efforts from Emmanuel Lemus and Jack Rivera in the final quarter to win. Lemus, held to four points in the first half, wound up with 14 points and 13 rebounds and Rivera had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Senior guard Luis Sandoval had a break-out game for the Saints, scoring a game-high 23 points.
Estancia was led by junior center Peter Sanchez, who had 18 points; senior guard Reef Johnson who scored 13 points and junior guard Jaedon Hose-Shea, who had 10 points.
Santa Ana, which led 40-26 at halftime, had trouble in a couple games holding onto big leads. It was a different result Wednesday.
“The third quarters have been frustrating,” said Santa Ana Coach Zach Johnson. “But overall, I thought we played pretty tough defense and we held a pretty good team to 55 points tonight. The big guy tonight was Luis Sandoval, he picked it up and had a massive game for us tonight.
“Without him, we didn’t have a chance. They contained our two bigs for a while but when our guys are engaged, they’re engaged in all ways, it doesn’t mean just scoring. Emmanuel had a big game rebounding, Jack had a big game rebounding. Credit Estancia, they played really well tonight as well.”
Sandoval has been injured for part of the season.
“Tonight, I had a feeling he was going to have a big game for us and he stepped up,” Johnson said.
“We were just locked in from the beginning,” Sandoval said. “We saw they were catching up to us but my guy Nick (Chavez) was making all the right passes and we finished up strong, playing good defense and good offense. We kept our heads high and we just locked in and just played defense, and the offense came to us too.”
Sandoval’s basket with 1:35 put the Saints ahead 62-52 and ended Estancia’s hopes of a comeback.
“I think we let it slip away,” said Estancia Coach Xavier Castellano. “We got it down by three and we missed a lay-up and had a turnover. Give them credit, they executed. I thought we did a good job on d and everything but putting the ball in the basket towards the end.
“That’s a good team; they were tough last year and they’re tough this year. Those role players played a heck of a game in the first half, I think that’s where we lost it in the first half. Jack and Emmanuel are tough. They (his players) all played their hearts out.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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