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SoCal High School & Prep Report

More "Central Coast" SoCal News:
Arroyo Grande Beats Righetti--(January 23, 1998)

Here's another one from the Northern League of the Southern Section CIF. For those of you not familiar with this area, it's really considered the southern edge of the Central Coast area of California. But for equally geographic reasons, there's no way the teams which play in this league could ever play in the real "Central Coast" of the CIF (which itself actually runs from Monterrey to points north), because there's a little thing called Big Sur which intervenes between just north of SLO (actually Cambria and Hearst Castle) and Monterrey. So, for better or worse, the Northern League is part of SoCal (otherwise it might be the Southern League of NoCal). But enough rambling. The Northern League features some great players and teams, and includes Arroyo Grande, Lompoc, Righetti, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Maria.

On Wednesday, January 21, 1998, Arroyo Grande beat Righetti, 59-56 in a game which saw Arroyo's Mario Landeros hit his fifth three-pointer of the game midway through the fourth quarter, stopping a Righetti comeback and leading Arroyo Grande to its first Northern League victory.

Arroyo Grande, which is not having a stellar season, and is only 5-11 overall, and with the win moved to 1-3 in Northern League play, jumped to a 33-21 halftime lead. "We played a very good first half and got a much-needed win," said Eagle head coach Jeff Byars. Landeros finished with 17 points and Branden Wickham added 13 points for the Arroyo Grande Eagles. Arroyo had nine three-pointers for the game.

Righetti, which dropped to 11-8 overall, and 1-3 also in league play, was led by Scott Smith with 14 points, Nick Matautia with 13 and James Teniente with 11. Arroyo Grande, which is now tied for third with the win did not play today, Friday, since they had a bye scheduled. "The bye comes at a good time for us, expecially after a win," said Byars.

Righetti plays San Luis Obispo today (Friday), which lost on Wednesday to Lompoc, which is now in sole possession of first in Northern League play with half the season completed. We hope to have a report on the game as soon as possible.