Garden Grove League : Rancho Alamitos Holds On to Win, 73-65

Although there isn’t a team in the Garden Grove League that will be mistaken for a top 10 club in Orange County, the race for the league championship is expected to be one of the closest in the area.

Defending champion Rancho Alamitos High School found that repeating will be difficult as the Vaqueros had to hold on to get a 73-65 win over La Quinta Friday night in the league opener for both teams.

The eight-point spread was the largest margin of victory in the three league games. Bolsa Grande and Garden Grove, which are favored along with Rancho Alamitos to win the title, had to be content with two-point victories.

La Quinta came into the game with a less-than-imposing 3-7 record, and the Aztecs lived up to that mark by quickly falling behind, 8-0. For the next 30 minutes, the Aztecs played catch up but never managed to gain a lead.

The victory was the fifth for Rancho Alamitos in its last seven games, and Coach Pat Adams said the Vaqueros are peaking just in time for league play.

“Our five starters and two reserves have been playing so well in the last seven games, I can’t be unhappy about anything we’re doing,” he said. “We’ve only lost twice in that span by a total of five points. We’ve played some quality teams like Servite, Katella and Lynwood, so our record is a bit deceiving.”

Rancho Alamitos evened its record at 7-7, thanks to the excellent floor play of point guard Randy Morales and the smooth shooting of three-year starting forward, Roger Carter. Morales led all scorers with 24 points, and Carter added 17 despite sitting out all of the second quarter because of foul trouble.

Lee Velasquez, the Vaqueros’ 7-foot center, also couldn’t be overlooked. He may have scored only 8 points, but he had 14 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. His presence forced the Aztecs to shoot mostly from the outside, and when they did dare to go inside, they often had to alter their shots.

Rancho Alamitos had a 47-36 lead going into the final quarter, but La Quinta staged a furious rally. On two occasions, the Aztecs managed to cut the deficit to four points. But La Quinta missed the front ends of four one-and-one free throw opportunities in the final 2 1/2 minutes that killed the threat.

“We did everything we were supposed to do to get back into the game and then couldn’t make free throws,” said Jim Perry, La Quinta coach. “We do one thing consistently, and that’s play inconsistently.

“We’re awfully young, and I expected this. But this team is driving me nuts. We beat the fourth-ranked team (Baldwin) from the state of Pennsylvania in Las Vegas and then got blown out the next night. That’s the way things have been going this year.”

A big part of La Quinta’s problems is it’s inability to shoot accurately. The Aztecs made only 22 of 68 attempts.

RANCHO ALAMITOS (73)--Carter 17, Morales 24, Paquette 9, Velasquez 8, Flores 14, Blasko 1.

LA QUINTA (65)--Ramsey 7, Whitcomb 14, Jackson 12, Buford 10, Recktenwald 4, Bennett 15, Wilson 3.

In other Garden Grove League action:

Garden Grove 47, Santiago 45 OT--Mike Lewis made both ends of a one-and-one with 15 seconds left to give the Argonauts (1-0, 10-5) the win at home.

The Cavaliers (0-1, 2-10) tied the score at the buzzer to send it into overtime, then won the tip and held the ball for the first 2:40 of overtime before turning it over. Lewis was fouled and made both shots for the only points in the overtime.

SANTIAGO (45)--Dinh 2, Avila 10, Burns 13, Hank 4, Klungreseter 14, Velasquez 2.

GARDEN GROVE (47)--Contreras 8, Kiefer 10, Kanetae 6, Lorenz 16, Finch 2, Fournier 2, Lewis 3.

Bolsa Grande 58, Los Amigos 56--Despite losing three starters with five fouls, the Matadors managed to gain a narrow victory and improved their record to 8-5. Sophomore Joe Small led all scorers with 19 points and had 10 rebounds. Los Amigos (7-6) was paced by Geno Howard with 17 points.

LOS AMIGOS (56)--Altramirano 14, Howard 17, Lacy 2, Davis 4, Skipps 6, Anderson 6, Hyatt 7.

BOLSA GRANDE (58)--Brown 4, Kao 12, Afdahl 6, Nguyen 12, Small 19, Trecshler 5.