Sports
Santana Turns Back Mount Miguel to Tighten Race
The Sultans make the Grossmont Valley League a three-team battle for the title.
For one of the few times in the Grossmont Valley League season, Santana High was able to perform at full strength.
It made a difference as the Sultans slipped past visiting Mount Miguel 58-49 Friday night in a key league encounter that carries heavy connotations in determining who’ll win the circuit title.
 Santana (17-8, 4-2 GVL), which stands a half game back of co-leaders Mount Miguel (19-7, 5-2) and Monte Vista (15-9, 5-2), can earn at a share of the crown by sweeping their final two regular season games. Santana travels to Monte Vista on Tuesday and then closes out by hosting El Capitan on Friday.
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“We’re pretty excited that we can determine our own destiny,” said Santana forward Landon Loyoza, who knocked down a game-high 20 points. “We’re back in it and ready to play these last two games.”All Mount Miguel needs is a season-ending victory over last place El Cajon Valley on Feb. 18 to be guaranteed nothing less than a co-championship.
Santana, which lost 62-59 in the first-round meeting at Mount Miguel, looked like it was going to win in a runaway during one stretch of the rematch. Using a 9-4 run to turn a six-point halftime edge into a 37-26 lead, the Sultans were rolling.
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Or so they thought.
Led by Marcus Booker’s eight-point scoring spurt, the Matadors cut the deficit to three points with 4:23 left in the third quarter.
Trailing by as little as 44-42 with six minutes remaining, the Matadors could never catch Santana on this night.
Six-foot-8 post Ryan Bickford of Santana scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half. He tallied five points in the final period to help the Sultans hold off the Matadors.
“Everyone stepped up tonight, hit the open shots and played defense,” Lozoya said. “You can’t ask for more than that.”
Booker led the Matadors with 12 points while Thomas Butler punched in 12.
 Mount Miguel    8   14   15   12  — 49
Santana            9    19    13  17 — 58
 Mount Miguel scoring: Booker 19, Butler 12, Littleton 7, Wagner 7, Abdi 4.
 Santana scoring: Lozoya 20, Bickford 17, Corbisez 8, Khalaf 5, Rosolino 4, Bass 4.
Special to Patch.com from East County Sports.com
