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Rancho Santiago assured itself of being alone in first place at the midpoint in the Orange Empire Conference race with a 75-64 victory over Fullerton Saturday at Fullerton. The Dons (17-7)

are 5-1 in conference and are idle Wednesday, when the other six teams, all of which have at least two losses, complete the first round. Fullerton led for the first five minutes, but Rancho

Santiago slowly gained control and led at the half, 40-29. Fullerton (10-10, 2-3) cut in the deficit to eight points on three occasions in the second half, the last coming when Rod Summers

made a short jumper with 6 minutes 7 seconds left. Rancho Santiago Coach Dana Pagett then called a timeout. Eric Dahl then made a three-pointer from the top of the key after the timeout.

After a Fullerton miss, the Dons’ Glenn Greene made a layup, was fouled, made the free throw and Rancho Santiago was up, 66-52, with 5:25 left. Dahl had a game-high 19, Ruben Oronoz added

13, and Daryl Cole 11, all in the first half--for Rancho Santiago. Dons’ center Rick Swanwick twisted his knee early in the second half and didn’t return. He will be examined again Monday.

Greg Bedford had 12 points and Summers and Bob Terry each had 11 for Fullerton. In other conference games: Cypress 84, Golden West 72--Golden West got as close as 63-60 with 9:40 left, but

Cypress went on a 10-0 run in next 3:30. David Boyle had seven points in the run and finished with a game-high 23 for Cypress. Anthony Livingston 16 and Tim Tillman had 13 points and eight

rebounds for Cypress (16-7, 3-2). Scott Campbell had 17 and Paig Parish added 16 for Golden West (11-14, 2-3), which lost its third consecutive conference game. Riverside 74, Orange Coast

64--Michael Wenzlaff hit a three-pointer with 2:10 left to get Orange Coast to within five at 69-64, but the host Pirates didn’t score again. Mark Moneypenny and Agustin Heredia each had 19

points for OCC (9-13, 1-4). Louden Williams had 18 for Riverside (17-9, 3-2). MORE TO READ