Santa Ana’s Deaven Perez passes the ball to teammate Jack Rivera as Kevin Nguyen of Santa Ana Valley defends Wednesday night. (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Santa Ana’s boys basketball team captured its second victory of the season over Santa Ana Valley, defeating the Falcons 63-40 Wednesday night in a non-league game at Santa Ana Valley.
Santa Ana (8-3) led from the start and jumped out to a 14-5 lead after the first quarter. The Saints led 30-21 at halftime and had a comfortable lead the rest of the way.
“We applied some pressure on the ball, we knew they had some guys down so we kind of took advantage of trying to run the ball and gassing them out,” said Santa Ana Coach Fareed ElMasry. “They just kind of wore down at the end.”
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Deaven Perez scored 22 points and made four 3-pointers to lead the Saints.
“He was really hot tonight from the perimeter, this is his third year as a starter and he’s been working on his game and it’s been showing,” ElMasry said.
Jack Rivera added 15 points and Luis Sandoval eight points for Santa Ana, which defeated Santa Ana Valley 59-43 on Saturday, Nov. 20 at the Luis Macias Tournament at Santa Ana.
ElMasry likes the progress of his team, which is ranked sixth in the CIF 5AA poll this week.
“When we’re a cohesive unit, it shows,” he said. “When we play as individuals, it also shows. We can go and beat Valley by 20 but we can also lose a game by five, depending on what team shows up.
“But I really like the way we’re coming together right now, right before the break. We got five games until league, we’re going to use that to help prepare us for our opponents.”
The Saints outscored the Falcons 18-14 in the third quarter to take a 48-35 lead going into the final stanza.
Santa Ana Valley cut the lead to 10 points late in the third quarter but a 3-pointer by Rivera at the close of the quarter gave the Saints a comfortble lead going into the final quarter.
Junior point guard Anthony Montiel scored 16 points and senior guard Gio Barajas scored 14 points to lead Santa Ana Valley (3-9).
“Santa Ana is obviously a good team, they get up and down and rotate the ball pretty well,” said Santa Ana Valley Coach Zach Perez. “I just think as a collective group, we didn’t rebound the ball enough and gave them second chance points and they got those wide open three’s that they make on a nightly basis.
“Montiel is a stud for us, he’s a threat on all parts of the court and he’s the guy who makes our offense go. When those guys around him can compliment him, it opens the court up for him and he opens the court up for everybody else as well.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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