Santa Ana girls basketball team gets past Saddleback 37-36 and makes history by clinching share of league title

Santa Ana High’s girls basketball team celebrates after Wednesday’s victory over Saddleback.

It was a very memorable night Wednesday for the Santa Ana High girls basketball team.

The Saints captured a 37-36 victory over Saddleback to earn an Orange Coast League co-championship with Costa Mesa.

Both Santa Ana and Costa Mesa finished 9-1 in league play and both are headed to the CIF playoffs next week.

Santa Ana, coached by Jessica Barber, is 17-9 overall. Costa Mesa finished regular season play 14-13.

Among those cheering on the Saints Wednesday night at Saddleback was Santa Ana Principal Jeff Bishop, who pointed out the significance of the title.

“I’ve been working as an administrator in Santa Ana Unified School District for 28 years and SAUSD for over 34 years and never has a girls team (from Santa Ana High) won a league championship,” he said Thursday.

“I researched the history through annuals and cannot find any team that matched this year’s success.”

The principal added:

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this team would go this far. The campus has changed, the attitudes, the students’ self-perception, their beliefs about themselves, and now teams at Santa Ana play to win instead of playing not to lose and there certainly is a difference.”

He also praised the effort of Barber.

“Jessica Barber loves her kids and never gives up on them,” he said. “In fact before the game she commented that, ‘As long as my kids play hard until the end, I’ll be happy. My kids worked so hard this year, It’s has been such a rewarding and satisfying season.'”

Barber added late Thursday:

“I’m just so incredibly proud of the hard work and effort all of the players have given this year. They have earned everything with their dedication to the program and their ability to continue to grow and improve every day whether it is in practice or in games. This was their moment and they made sure it didn’t get away from them.”

The starters for the Saints on Wednesday were Elizabeth Mendoza, Valerie Rueda, Xitali De La Paz, Elizabeth Zavala and Esperanza Reyes.

Reyes scored 13 points and had 14 rebounds and Zavala had nine points and 16 rebounds.

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