Freeway League : Sunny Hills Outmuscles Buena Park

Sunny Hills and Buena Park high schools played basketball Friday night.

Well, that’s what the marquee read. Actually, what it came down to was tag-team hoops, with Buena Park’s Gary Hunter and Kevin Graddy going elbow to elbow against Sunny Hills’ Chris Drakos and Brian McCloskey.

Drakos (28) and McCloskey (17) won the war, combining for 45 points to lead Sunny Hills to a 72-64 Freeway League victory over the Coyotes at Buena Park.

Hunter (26) and Graddy (23)? They had to be content to walk away with the battle, combining for 49 points.

The happy ending for aficionados of the team game is that none of those four big scorers made the game’s most important shot. That was reserved for Sunny Hills’ Jeff White, who scored all of five points. He made a three-point shot with 1:44 left that put Sunny Hills ahead for good, 65-62.

White’s shot capped a furious Sunny Hills’ rally in the fourth quarter, during which the Lancers outscored Buena Park, 25-16. White wasn’t exactly a part of that rally, having missed his last seven shots before casting off from 20 feet.

Though a few Sunny Hills fans groaned when White, not Drakos or McCloskey, took the shot, Sunny Hills Coach Steve White said he wasn’t worried.

“When your dad’s the coach, you always have the green light,” said White, Jeff’s father. “He can hit that shot. They just weren’t falling for him for a while.”

Plenty was falling for Hunter in the first half. He scored 21, including 16 in the second quarter to lead Buena Park (8-4, 1-1) to a 40-33 halftime lead. Hunter took 18 of Buena Parks’ 28 shots in the first half.

Sunny Hills (12-1, 2-0) was struggling, making only 13 of 39 attempts from the floor. Drakos led Sunny Hills in the first half with 12 points.

“I think we ran out of gas toward the end of the first quarter,” White said.

The Lancers looked just fine in the second half, outscoring Buena Park, 39-24.

As Sunny Hills began to fly, Buena Park seemed to grind to halt, a victim of weak ballhandling and a cooled-off Hunter, who scored just five points in the second half.

“Gary Hunter is a big-time player,” White said. “We stayed on him a little tighter in the second half. We didn’t let him roam as much. That wasn’t a change in philosophy for us. We had meant to do that the whole game. We just broke down a little defensively in the first half.”

In Hunter’s absence, Graddy scored 14 points in the second half, many on drives along the baseline.

In other league games:

Fullerton 77, La Habra 65--The Indians trailed at halftime, 31-27, but outscored the Highlanders, 50-34, in the second half. Alan Lewis had 20 points, David Sawyer 19 and Rene Arias 16 for Fullerton (7-6, 1-1). La Habra was led by Anthony Ortiz with 19 points.

Troy 54, Sonora 49 (OT)--The Warriors (10-4, 2-0) made eight consecutive free throws in overtime to win at Troy. Jim Bridges and Jeff Holland each scored 14 points for the Warriors. The Raiders were led by Grayle Humphrey, who had 15 points, and Scott St. Clair, who had 11, including a free throw with nine seconds left that sent the game into overtime.