PHOTOS: Big second quarter lifts Dana Hills past Santa Ana in tourney

Griffin Haugh of Dana Hills goes up for a layup and gets fouled by Santa Ana’s Jack Rivera. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone).

Dana Hills boys basketball team captured its second straight victory at the Luis Macias Tournament, defeating Santa Ana 74-43 Thursday night.

The Dolphins led 16-11 after one quarter then broke the game open with a 17-4 run in the second quarter. Dana Hills led 41-18 at halftime and 60-34 after three quarters.

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Senior guard Griffin Haugh scored 25 points and made three 3-pointers to lead Dana Hills. Collin Haugh added 11 points for Dana Hills.

Deaven Perez scored 14 points and Luis Sandoval nine points to lead Santa Ana (2-1).

“We came out a little sluggish and in the second quarter we kind of got out defensively and got our hands on a lot of balls and we got some steals and then we ran the floor extremely well,” said Dana Hills Coach Tom Desiano. “When we do that, we’re pretty tough. We got some lay-ups and then that kind of opened up so definitely that second quarter was the key. It was one of the best quarters of the two games we’ve played.

“There are some things we definitely got to work on. It’s about where I thought we would be. I think we just keep getting better every game. We got a little better today than we did our last game and tomorrow, we play El Modena who is tough, so it should be a good game tomorrow so I look forward to see how they do. Any time we get in a tournament, we want to play for the championship.”

Santa Ana Coach Fareed ElMasry hopes his team can learn from the loss.

“Our defensive transition was pretty non-existent,” ElMasry said. “Credit to Dana Hills, they really pushed the ball whenever we turned the ball over so our turnovers leading to their transition points is really what kind of led the way for them to build the lead. Our boys just didn’t really respond to offensive transition.

“We were happy with our first two games, we knew we were playing a good Dana Hills team. We thought we would be able to hang with them and this exposes us. This is good for us. We can go into the next game knowing our weaknesses and that’s just going to make us better.”

In other games Thursday, Bolsa Grande defeated Santa Ana Valley 46-33 and Calvary Chapel topped Westminster 72-52.

The tournament continues Friday with the finals on Saturday. The schedule for Saturday will be announced after Friday’s games are concluded. The championship is at 1:30 p.m.

—Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone