PHOTOS: Santa Ana survives Segerstrom’s late run and advances in CIF playoff thriller

Santa Ana players, including Jack Rivera (No. 31) and Alexis Neria celebrate the win. (Photos courtesy Mark Bausman, For OC Sports Zone).

Santa Ana High School’s boys basketball team survived a late run by Segerstrom and held on for a 78-73 victory in the opening round of the 4A playoffs Wednesday night at Segerstrom.

Both sides of the Segerstrom gymnasium were filled with enthusiastic fans who saw a fast-paced thriller between Santa Ana Unified School District rivals that went down to the wire. Center Emmanuel Lemus led Santa Ana with 26 points. Guard Jack Rivera had 23 points, 14 coming in the second half.

Santa Ana (19-7) moves on to the second round on Friday night at home vs. Cate.

“District rivalry games are always crazy,” said Santa Ana Coach Zach Johnson, who led his team to its second win over Segerstrom this season. “They’re always a lot of fun. We knew we were going to take their best shot and we got punched in the mouth (during the comeback), came back and Alexis Neria did his job. Those were huge free throws by Alexis. Alexis has been a rock for us this year.

“We’re just happy to be moving on, survive and advance.”

To see the slide show, click on the first photo:

The Saints had what looked to be a comfortable 60-47 lead after three quarters and a 12-point lead with three minutes remaining but Segerstrom, behind the 3-point shooting of Shawn Murray made a furious comeback. The Jaguars were able to convert turnovers into baskets to get back in the game.

The Jaguars cut the lead to 74-72 when Chris Negrete scored off a steal. Negrete was also fouled and made the free throw to make it 74-73 with 31 seconds remaining.

Santa Ana had a chance to increase its lead but missed a free throws. Then Segerstrom, after moving the ball up the court, was fouled but the Jaguars missed both free throws.

Alexis Neria then sank four free throws in the final 15 seconds for Santa Ana to seal the win.

Santa Ana led from the start, moving out to a 20-11 lead after one quarter and a 40-32 edge at halftime.

But Segerstrom (14-12) made it very interesting at the end.

The Jaguars got solid offensive production with four players in double figures. Isaiah Velasquez had 17 points, Chris Negrete 16 points, Shawn Murray 14 points, including three 3-pointers in the final quarter and Christopher Arteaga 13 points for the Jaguars, the Golden West League champions.

“It started off kind of slow,” said Segerstrom Coach Eddie Andrade, who led his team to its first league title since 2011. “We had some game plans to try and slow down Emmanuel and Jack, and Emmanuel had 20 at half. We just didn’t execute that game plan really well right away. But we just kept fighting and kept it close most of the game and I think in the fourth quarter it got up to almost 15 or 13 with a couple minutes to play.

“I called a timeout and told the kids, ‘keep fighting and believing, there’s a chance’ and we just roared back. It was one of the best comebacks I think I’ve ever seen in a high school game. We had a shot to take the lead with a free throw, sometimes it doesn’t fall your way, but hats off to Santa Ana, they played hard. They never gave up either.”

Santa Ana players were ecstatic as they celebrated on the court afer the game.

“Shoutout to Alexis, he stayed composed, hit his free throws and sealed the game,” Rivera said. “I fouled out and the game kind of unraveled, but we were able to stay composed and get the W. It’s nice to be the best school in Santa Ana.

“It’s amazing, we’ve had practices in these environments before and I feel like our guys were prepared and we stayed composed right until the final end. It was my most exciting game as a Saint, by far.”

Lemus, who helped Santa Ana jump to the first half lead, was also excited.

“It just means so much to us,” Lemus said. “Today was such a great experience. I thought I had a great start but once we went to the third quarter, we kind of fell off a bit and then we picked it up right away. They tried to shut us down but we had a little bit more game.”

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