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Segerstrom Jaguars celebrate Friday’s non-league win over Godinez. (Photos courtesy Mark Bausman).
Segerstrom High School’s boys basketball team, coming off a big road win over Aliso Niguel Thursday, kept the momentum going Friday evening at home with a 46-38 victory over crosstown rival Godinez.
Segerstrom (5-6) has four wins in a row and won Friday with a big fourth quarter, outscoring Godinez 18-10. The Jaguars defeated Aliso Niguel 53-42 Thursday night.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Godinez held a 19-15 lead at halftime but Segerstrom got going in the third quarter, led by guard Ricky Carballea, who hit three 3-pointers and wound up leading his team with a game-high 20 points and six 3-pointers.
Aaron Escalera added 13 points for Segerstrom.
Carballea got the home fans fired up with a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter to tie the game 28-28. Segerstrom jumped out to a four-point lead in the fourth quarter before Godinez cut it to one point.
Adrian Dominguez scored to give Segerstrom a 41-35 lead with 1:23 left and the Jaguars held on from there.
“It’s a rivalry game, some of these kids look forward to these games,” said Segerstrom Coach Rex Gonzales. “The atmosphere was there, we didn’t start off the greatest. We had a big win yesterday and I told the boys that win yesterday doesn’t mean anything if we don’t win today.
“They came out a little too confident in themselves, winning yesterday was such a big game, but in the second half, we came out with a lot more energy and a lot more effort and desire to win the game, we made adjustments and they adjusted to us and we went from there.”
Gonzales was pleased with Carballea’s effort.
“Those three’s were big threes,” Gonzales said. “They adjusted on our zone, I knew he could shoot the ball a little and I said, ‘let it fly and see what happens,’ and he let it fly from 26, 27 feet away and fortunately they went in tonight.”
“First half wasn’t really going our way,” Carballea said. “We were being pretty lazy but I feel like those three three’s that I hit really brought great energy, Aaron off the bench brought great energy and Elijah (Harrizon) did a good job on the big man. It’s always a big game, it feels good to win in front of a big crowd.”
Junior Jaiden Torres, the only returning starter off last year’s league championship team that went 24-7, led Godinez with 13 points. Sophomore Marcus Poserio added 12 points for the Grizzlies.
Godinez (6-8) jumped out to a 12-4 start before Segerstrom got closer in the second quarter.
“The one kid dropped six bombs on us, they were deep,” said Godinez Coach Robert Morgan. “We tried to keep on him but he kept moving out further and further and I said I guess we could live with that but he kept hitting them.
“I think it’s good for us as we get closer to league. There is so much focus on Jaiden Torres to cover him, the other guys have had a difficult time finding themselves because we graduated nine seniors and he’s the only returner with any scoring kind of ability. The younger kids are learning how to assimilate and become the team I think they’re going to be.
“I’m really happy with the way they’re doing it. It’s a great rivalry playing with Sega, classy place, I like this place. I don’t like to ever say rebuild, I like to say reload, but we are young, we have a lot of sophomores on the team and some juniors and very few seniors who are big scorers for us.”
Friday’s game started at 5 p.m. and attracted a solid turnout of fans from both schools.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
