PREP FLASHBACK : THIS WEEK IN COUNTY PREP SPORTS HISTORY

10 YEARS AGO

Fountain Valley rolled into the boys’ basketball playoffs, clinching the Sunset League title with an 87-71 victory over Edison. The victory was Fountain Valley’s 18th in a row after a 1-3 start.

The improvement could be traced directly to the recovery of forward Jeff Christensen, who broke a finger the previous December.

Against Edison, Christensen scored 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. When teams doubled up on him, Fountain Valley could go across the lane to forward Jeff Hughes or center Frank Luongo.

Hughes scored 21 points and Luongo had 16 points and 12 rebounds against Edison, which Fountain Valley dominated up front.

5 YEARS AGO

Fullerton made the playoffs, but not the way anyone expected.

The Indians were the consensus pick by Freeway League coaches to win the championship but struggled to finish third at 16-9 overall. Fullerton’s reward for underachieving? A wild-card game against Western to determine which would get the last spot in the 3-A Division’s 32-team draw.

Again the Indians did things the hard way, defeating Western, 60-57, in overtime.

Fullerton had a seven-point advantage with three minutes to play, but that lead evaporated when Western forward Troy Joseph took the ball the length of the court for a dunk to tie the score at 51 with 17 seconds left.

Fullerton scored seven of its nine overtime points from the free-throw line, including six by Mike Hetland.

“We came to school and practiced free throws before the game because I thought that would be important in a close game,” Fullerton Coach Randy Forgette said.

Well, at least some things worked as planned.

1 YEAR AGO

Jennifer Rohrig got on a roll at the right time, carrying Mission Viejo through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Rohrig scored 21 points as Mission Viejo easily defeated Claremont, 60-25, in a first-round 4-AA Division game.

In the second round, Torrance played well, but Mission Viejo won again, thanks to Rohrig. She scored 24 points, grabbed 19 rebounds and blocked six shots in a 52-45 victory.