JOEL CENICEROZ (at right) goes for a layup against Garden Grove Friday night in the Santiago gym. The Cavaliers won 57-47 to improve to 2-0 in Garden Grove League play, tied with Bolsa Grande (OC Tribune photo).

By Jim Tortolano

It’s exhausting just watching the Santiago High School boy’s basketball team play. It certainly looked like the Cavaliers tired out the visiting Garden Grove High team en route to a 57-47 victory Friday night at packed SHS gymnasium.

“We play hard,” said Santiago coach Al Robertson. “That’s our style of game. Just hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle. Play defense. Run, run, run, run. That’s our game.”

That approach lifted the Cavaliers into a first place tie with Bolsa Grande for the Garden Grove League lead at 2-0. Santiago is now 11-7 overall. The two teams will clash on Jan 25 in the Santiago gymnasium.

The boys in purple employed a choking zone defense to force the Argonauts (1-1 and 12-7) to shoot from outside, and except for a stretch here and there, the Grove players were chilly from the field.

Garden Grove led 14-10 after the first quarter, but the Cavs caught them at 26-26 and took a lead at 29-26 at 3:10 of the second quarter they never lost. Santiago led by as much as 15 at one point, and the home crowd started chanting, “This game’s over.”

Grove rallied a bit to pull to within 10, but the game finally belonged to the team that ran, ran, ran, the most.

ADRIAN MONTES (32) is a tall order on defense for Santiago in its win Friday against Garden Grove (OC Tribune photo).

Santiago benefitted from the small to the towering. Joel Ceniceroz, a 5-foot, 5-inch senior point guard, ran the Argos ragged and scored 11 points. The Cavs two 6-foot-6-inch players – Oscar Alcantar and Reggie Munoz – helped clog the middle and dominated the boards.

Alcantar scored 16 points, and Chris Roberston had 10 for Santiago.

Garden Grove was led by Brandon Coleman with 16, points, followed by Mario Moemoe with 12 and Jerry Martinez with 10. Grove is next in action on Wednesday hosting Rancho Alamitos; Santiago will again be at home on Wednesday against Los Amigos.

Here are the results of games involving teams from the Garden Grove-Huntington Beach-Westminster area.

Boys’ basketball

• Santiago 57, Garden Grove 47
• Bolsa Grande 37, Los Amigos 32
• La Quinta 67, Rancho Alamitos 54
• Pacifica 50, Western 41
• Edison 75, Newport Harbor 70
• Huntington Beach 60, Fountain Valley 58

Girls’ basketball (Friday)

• La Quinta 49, Rancho Alamitos 29
• Garden Grove 49, Santiago 31
• Bolsa Grande 37, Los Amigos 32
• Pacifica 59, Western 18

Girls’ basketball (Thursday)

• Huntington Beach 62, Fountain Valley 27
• Los Alamitos 71, Marina 32
• Edison 56, Newport Harbor 34