By Adam Stites/Garden Grove Journal
For the first time since 1996, before some of the Rancho Alamitos student body were born, the Vaqueros boys basketball team are Garden Grove League champions. With a resounding, 66-48 victory over the Garden Grove Argonauts on Thursday, Feb. 2, the Vaqueros celebrated their league championship in the Garden Grove High School gym.
“This game, for us, was everything,” said senior Dentay Wallace. “We knew if we won this game, we could take league.”
The Argonauts got out to the early lead after winning the first quarter 16-14, but the second quarter was won handily by the Vaqueros. While the Rancho shooters found their rhythm, Grove’s shooters lost all of theirs as RAHS won the second quarter 24-2 to leap out to a 20-point lead at halftime.
The sole points scored by the Argos in the second quarter came when Dory Aoun finished a
layup with 1:33 remaining in the half. The lead continued to balloon in the second half as Grove was unable to hit another field goal until Manny Singh hit a three-pointer with 42 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
While the Argonauts were unable to hit any of their shots, the Vaqueros, led by 17 points f
rom Samer Mauolawi, 12 from Henry Nguyen and 12 more from Wallace, continued to hit their shots.
“We’ve worked a lot on outside shots and they hit those,” said Rancho Alamitos head coach Tod Frank. “They’re not afraid. I told them, ‘Don’t be afraid’ because we’re better than this team, play like it.”
The Argos finally found some rhythm in the fourth quarter, but Rancho’s 25 -point lead after the third quarter proved to be insurmountable. “We’re all swinging the ball, everyone’s touching the ball by the time it gets to about half-court and we’re all taking our shots, because we can all shoot,” Wallace said.
With the victory, the Vaqueros record improved to 8-0 in league play, two games better than the Argonauts, who fell to 6-2 with two games to play in the regular season. Both teams are playoff bound, but Rancho’s goal is “to finish 10-0,” according to Frank.
They took a step in the right direction with a 71-66 victory over the Santiago Cavaliers on Monday, Feb. 6 and looked to complete their goal when they hosted the Los Amigos Lobos in the Rancho Alamitos High School gym on Wednesday (results too late for our deadline).
Garden Grove bounced back from their defeat with a 54-47 victory over the Bolsa Grande Matadors on Monday, Feb. 6 and concluded its regular season at home against the La Quinta Aztecs on Wednesday.
The CIF-Southern Section playoff pairings will be released Sunday, Feb. 12.
