Godinez celebrates return home with non-league victory against Rancho Alamitos

Godinez senior Adrian Gonzalez drives to the basket as Henry Pham of Rancho Alamitos defends Tuesday. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Godinez High School’s boys basketball team seemed happy to be back home Tuesday after taking part in the rugged San Juan Invitational last week.

One of the Grizzlies’ games in that tournament was against Orange County power Mater Dei. Godinez wound up the tourney with a 50-40 victory over Laguna Hills.

Tuesday night, the Grizzlies, ranked No. 5 in Division 5AA put together a solid effort to defeat Rancho Alamitos 67-51. Rancho Alamitos, coached by Anh Tung Than, has had some big wins this season and is ranked eighth in this week’s CIF 5A poll.

Godinez (8-5) led 41-32 at halftime before outscoring the Vaqueros 13-4 in the third quarter to break the game open.

To see additional photos, click on the first picture:

Inoke Malo of Rancho Alamitos and Jaiden Torres of Godinez get ready for the opening tip-off.

Godinez coach Robert Morgan talks to the Grizzlies during a timeout.

Senior captain Lucas Andaluz was one of the top players Tuesday.

“Getting our big guy (6-7 MaGen Young) back, he only played in the first game, so getting him back and getting him refreshed, our other big guy handled the inside really well (helped),” said Godinez Coach Robert Morgan. “However, their post (Inoke Malo, 20 points) was dynamic and very difficult to deal with.

“I think we made some good decisions and they play a defense that makes you scatter and kind of have to make good decisions. I think we got a little better in our decision making. It’s nice to have a lot of seniors on the team for that reason.”

One of those seniors, Adrian Gonzalez, led the Grizzlies with 24 points and six 3-pointers. Jaiden Torres had 14 points, Bryan Huirache 11 points and Lucas Andaluz nine points.

“We’re really good that way, we don’t have one single weapon so we’re able to move the ball around to a bunch of different places,” Morgan said. “Lucas Andaluz and Jaiden Torres being able to handle the press all the time makes it so much easier for us. Jaiden has all the height (6-5) so he can see over all the kids and we’ve done a much better job rebounding and that’s something we’ve had to work on.”

Rancho Alamitos (8-7) led briefly in the first quarter but Godinez finished the quarter strong and took an 18-13 lead going into the second quarter.

The Grizzlies then continued the momentum the rest of the game and led by 18 going into the final stanza.

“Today we played really good as a team, we had a little rough side, but we picked it up,” said Andaluz, the senior captain who is on his third year with the varsity. “We just came back from a really tough tournament and we’re prepared for anyone. We played really good, we moved the ball, we played good defense, we were disciplined, we rebounded and I think it was just a really good game for us.”

Andaluz said he and his teammates are excited about the rest of the season.

“I think we can win league and I just want to make CIF (playoffs) and then to compete throughout CIF,” he said.

Tim Phan added 11 points and Henry Pham nine points for Rancho Alamitos.

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