PHOTOS: Thrilling Santa Ana Prep Classic ends with a 3-point buzzer-beater in OT

Jaiden Torres of Godinez is mobbed by teammates after sinking the winning 3-pointer in overtime Friday night. (Photos courtesy Mark Bausman, For OC Sports Zone).

Senior high school boys basketball players mostly from Santa Ana Unified School District capped their high school careers Friday night with a highly competitive, exciting game that went down to the wire to wrap up the 2026 Santa Ana Prep Classic at Segerstrom.

Jaiden Torres of Godinez sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer in overtime to lift the Away team to a 52-51 victory over the Home team in front of an estimated 500 fans. Torres, the MVP of the game, was mobbed by his teammates after the win after scoring 15 points in the annual game.

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Players from the Home team also congratulated him and his teammates after the spirited contest. It was the second of two games presented by the Raya Foundation, led by president Leon Raya.

Players were into it, so were fans who were vocal in support of their teams, especially in the overtime.

In the final seconds of overtime, Chris Gutierrez from Segerstrom put the Home team ahead 51-49 with about 12 seconds left. But the Away team moved the ball up the court quickly and found Torres, who cooly sank the 3-pointer.

“When my team took it out, I kind of saw the shot clock with four seconds and I knew I had time to dribble it so I tried to get as close as I can to the rim and I knew we were down by two and that a three was either going to win or go home,” he said. “It’s the first year of having the MVP, so me having it and getting the first one means a lot.”

Godinez teammate Dagyr Young added seven points for the Away team.

The Home team was led by Chris Trotter of Saddleback, who scored 15 points. Ethan Rodriguez of Segerstrom added 11 points and Saddleback’s Jayden Carter had eight points.

“The game was pretty intense, toward the end of the game especially,” Trotter said. “At the beginning of the game, it was just us trying to get back in the game. Me and Ethan hit a couple three-pointers to get us back in the game. The game was pretty even the entire game, it went to overtime and we couldn’t close out the game. “

The Home team held a 21-20 halftime lead and extended the margin to six points early in the second 20-minute half. The Away team rallied to tie the game in the second half but the Home team took a 44-42 lead in the final 30 seconds when Gutierrez made one of two free throws.

But the Away team tied the game 44-44 when Zack Castruita (Samueli Academy) sank two clutch free throws at the end of regulation to send the game into a two-minute overtime.

The Home team moved out to three point lead in overtime before the Away team battled back.

“It was a very exciting game,” said Home team Coach Rex Gonzales from Segerstrom. “It was fun for the boys, I liked it a lot. In the last four or six minutes of the game, I put the guys in that I believed in them, we came back. It was a very competitive game.”

It marked the final game in the district for Godinez Coach Robert Morgan, who announced he is retiring.

“It was super nice to be around all these kids from Santa Ana,” Morgan said. “The energy for all the kids was crazy. It was so much fun for all the kids to be around. You usually don’t see that in an all-star game. I usually see kids that say, ‘I want to go in, I want to go in.’ But they were all good.”

And Morgan was happy to see Torres hit the game-winner.

“I always tell Jaiden, ‘when you walk in the gym you’re always the best player,’ and you got to know it and you’ve got to believe it and I think he does,” Morgan said. “Four years coaching him on varsity, I had him from beginning to end and I would take him anywhere over anybody.”

Leon Raya, president of the Raya Foundation, also thanked all the volunteers and event sponsors Santa Ana Elks Lodge and the Chick-fil-A on Bristol and MacArthur in Santa Ana, led by owner Tony Stewart. Pearl Raya is the treasurer. Director Josh Jogwe also helped run the event.

There was also a three-point shooting contest before the game and T-shirt give-aways from Chick-fil-A.

Segerstrom junior Angello Ramirez, one of the top players on the Jaguars this past season, was the statistician for both games.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com