Home team’s Issac Alvarez of Santa Ana pushes the ball up the court as Away team’s José Martínez from Saddleback defends during the first half of Friday’s Santa Ana Prep Classic boys game. (PHOTOS: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)
After a solid first half, it was looking like the Home team might coast to a victory over the Away team in the boys game of the Santa Ana Prep Basketball Classic Friday night at Santa Ana High School.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone
PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone
The Home team led by 12 points at halftime of the second game of the annual event, sponsored by Leon Raya’s Raya Foundation. Teams consisting mainly of seniors from Santa Ana Unified School District teams were paired up into Away and Home teams.
The Home team survived the Away team’s rally to win 80-74.
The Away team began its comeback on a basket by Ricky Carbellea (Segerstrom) which cut the lead to 53-47 with 13 minutes left in the second 20-minute half.
The Home team regained the momentum and moved out to a nine-point lead but the Away team came charging back in the final two minutes for an exciting finish.
In a wild final minute and 30 seconds, Nick Cervantes (Segerstrom) and Adrian Dominguez (Segerstrom) of the Away team scored baskets to cut the lead to 76-74. But the Home team’s Andre Macias (Godinez) scored a basket with 15.2 seconds left to make it 78-74 to seal the win and the Home team added two more points.
Macias ended up as the game high scorer with 29 points, 17 coming in the second half. Issac Alvarez (Santa Ana) scored 18 points and Alejandro Lopez (Santa Ana) added 12 points for the Home team.
Nick Cervantes (Segerstrom) had 18 points, Dominguez 15 points, Carbellea 13 points and Julian Chanelo (Samueli Academy) 11 points to lead the Away team.
“It was all about the team effort, passing, cutting, especially running down full court,” Macias said. “We were able to move the ball down in transition and score the baskets, so it was all about team effort. It ended on a good note, that’s the best part about it to end up with the Raya Foundation. They’ve always done a great job of bringing us players together. It was pretty eventful for all of us.
“This one is pretty close to home, all my family has been here so being in this gym with the Saints was a very eventful experience, one I will always remember.”
Alvarez, who had 14 points in the first half, was also excited about the win in his final game in the Santa Ana gym.
“It was fun, all-star game, last game in a Santa Ana uniform, glad to share it with my teammates, the Century boys and the Godinez boys, I’m glad I got to experience this,” he said. “It’s usually played at Godinez but I was happy when I found out it was going to be here at Santa Ana, one last time in our home court.”
Santa Ana Coach Rick Mares who coached the Home team, was pleased with the outcome and the event itself.
“The Segerstrom kids played well with each other, they don’t give up, they’re tough kids, they’re relentless,” Mares said. “It was great. Overall, what I try to do is build chemistry in one day as much as possible and get the boys familiar with each other and their styles of play and they had fun out there.
“Our boys wanted it more and executed in the end. Macias went straight to the rim and did his damage in there. Issac has been Mr. Reliable for us, I can’t say enough about Issac, he does everything on offense and defense. It was great to coach my seniors one last time.”
Away team coach Rex Gonzales from Segerstrom was pleased with how his team battled in the second half.
“We wanted to make it competitive,” he said. “They had us for double digits for a good portion of the game so you got to make adjustments to make it competitive. It worked because we came back from 12 to two and you get the crowd going on and you get the atmosphere of a Santa Ana game. I’ve always liked games like this because it’s always good for the community to come out, I’m pretty sure we had a few hundred people here to watch.
“Ricky and Nick both had a big second half, Nick did a good job on the rebounds and Ricky was hitting his three’s.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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