Santa Ana Joins Bowl-Bound Teams

It’s bowl week for certain community college football teams. Santa Ana is heading to Antelope Valley, and Hancock and Long Beach will travel to Orange Coast.

Santa Ana (7-3), which won seven in a row and finished first in the Mission Conference Central Division, takes on host Antelope Valley (7-3) at 5 p.m. Saturday in the McDonald’s Bowl. Santa Ana is ranked 13th in the nation by the J.C. Grid-Wire, which also picks the Dons to win, 35-24. Antelope Valley is unranked in the national poll.

Hancock (8-2) and Long Beach (8-2) play in the Simple Green Orange County Bowl at 1 p.m. Saturday at OCC. Long Beach is 10th and Hancock is 16th. The J.C. Grid-Wire likes Long Beach, 38-21.

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One-stop shopping: Irvine Valley, Golden West and host Orange Coast take part in the Orange Coast/Kiwanis men’s basketball tournament starting Thursday.

Irvine Valley (5-0) is the defending tournament champion and opens with Imperial Valley at 8 p.m. Golden West (0-4) plays El Camino at 4 p.m. and Orange Coast (3-2) plays Barstow at 6 p.m.

The other first-round game matches Long Beach against Victor Valley at 2 p.m. The tournament continues Friday and the title game is at 7 p.m. Saturday.