Santa Ana players celebrate Wednesday’s league win over Westminster. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Santa Ana High School’s boys basketball celebrated senior night Wednesday with a hard-fought 59-50 Golden West League victory over Westminster to keep its CIF playoff hopes alive.
The Saints (7-16, 3-3) remained in third place behind league-leader Valencia and second place Laguna Hills with games remaining Friday at Laguna Hills and Tuesday at Buena Park. Three teams from the league advance to the playoffs.
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“It sets us up right now for the battle for third place,” said Santa Ana Coach Rick Mares. “It was great, it was an emotional night with senior night happening, slow start, but they came back and they fought and our seniors that played today stepped up and they wanted it.
“They had a good week of practice and boys came out ready to go.”
One of the seniors, Issac Alvarez, led the way for Santa Ana with 27 points.
“Issac Alvarez is our captain, he steps up when we need him, scores on offense, plays defense and he does everything that we need and he doesn’t complain about it, that’s what a captain does,” Mares said.
Alvarez said he was thrilled to get the win with his family looking on.
“It was amazing, senior night, the crowd was pretty packed on our side, I just enjoyed every single moment of it,” he said. “They were making all their shots, but we fought back and came out victorious. Last two games, we will try to go 2-0 and finish out the season strong and go into playoffs.
“It’s a team effort from the bench to the starters, it takes all of us.”
Coach CJ Hollingsworth’s Westminster team (5-18, 0-6) battled from start to finish and had a 32-28 halftime lead led by Sean Le, who sank two 3-pointers in the final minute of the first half. Le led his team with 23 points.
But Santa Ana came out strong in the third quarter, outscoring Westminster 14-5 to take a 42-37 lead going into the final stanza.
The Saints built the lead up to six points late in the game, but Le hit a 3-pointer with 42.8 seconds to close the gap to three.
However, Santa Ana senior Alejandro Lopez, who sank six straight free throws in the final quarter, came through at the free throw line to help the Saints seal it. Lopez wound up with 10 points.
“That’s another senior right there,” Mares said. “When you need him, he’s right there with free throws in the clutch to help put away the game.”
Aaron Rivera added seven points for Santa Ana.
Mares said the Saints are looking forward to their final two league games and will most likely need to defeat Buena Park to advance to the playoffs.
“We’re in the hunt, so these boys are not going to stop fighting,” Mares said.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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