Santa Ana’s Deaven Perez and Damian Guzman of Godinez scramble for a loose ball late in the fourth quarter of Monday’s game. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone).
Santa Ana’s boys basketball team battled back from a one-point halftime deficit with a strong second half to defeat Godinez 54-46 in a nonleague game Monday night at Godinez.
The Saints went on a 9-1 run in the third quarter and took a 32-25 lead with 5:58 left. Santa Ana led 35-34 after three quarters but the game was tied 39-39 with six minutes remaining.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Deaven Perez completed a 3-point play when he was fouled with 3:05 remaining to put Santa Ana ahead by four and the Saints eventually build an eight-point lead.
Perez led Santa Ana (5-2) with 21 points. Jack Rivera had 11 points and Luis Sandoval 10 points for the Saints.
Godinez (3-8) was led by Dillan Carrillo, who scored 14 points and Ivan Perez and Lucas Andaluz, who had 10 points each.
“Both teams came out to play, we knew it was going to be a tough one because of the crossstown rivals,” said Santa Ana assistant Coach Mo Aguilar. “They came out ready to go and I told our guys they were going to come out and defend and come out and play hard and they did. They were tough. We were able to play some defense toward the end and get some stops and get some easy buckets which is how we ended up getting that lead.”
Godinez Coach Robert Morgan said his team is making progress.
“Every single day we try and get better in practice, which is the main thing we’re trying to concentrate on,” said Morgan. “We started with no lower levels last year so rebuilding completely from where we were is what we’re trying to do and the intensity that Santa Ana brings is fantastic for our team, especially being in the same city, a lot of these kids went to middle school together and know each other and just letting them see that intensity out there on the court over and over and coming back and a ton of charater, these kids are really working their butts off so I’m really happy with them.”
“They had the momentum going into the half and we had to come back strong,” said Perez, the Saints leading scorer. “Our coach told us to stick to the game plan and that’s what we did. We had to execute and we ended up pulling it out. It was an ugly win, but we got it. I was telling my teammates we got to give it our all because we don’t want to lose here, we haven’t lost here in a while, so we want to continue that, so I told everybody, ‘let’s keep the same energy’ and we did that and took the W.”
Santa Ana will play Los Amigos (1-5) on Tuesday, while Godinez will play at Estancia (5-4) on Wednesday.
—Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone
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