Boys basketball: Sea Kings make Eagles fade away, 44-42

Tony Altobelli

CORONA DEL MAR - The play was worked on in practice, drawn up again

in the timeout and delivered by Coach Paul Orris to his Corona del Mar

High boys basketball team.

Fortunately for the Sea Kings, Idean Shahangian went with Plan B.

The senior guard’s 15-foot fadeaway jumper with six seconds remaining,

helped the Sea Kings top visiting Estancia, 44-42, Wednesday night in a

crucial Pacific Coast League matchup.

“It was nowhere near what we had drawn up in the timeout,” Orris

confessed afterward. “Friday night against Northwood, we were good.

Tonight, we were lucky. We played like we’ve been looking too much at our

newspaper clippings.”

With the win, the Sea Kings remain on top of the Pacific Coast League

standings with a 3-0 record, 9-11 overall.

Shahangian and senior Zach Brewster each had 11 points to lead CdM,

while senior Eric Snell added 10.

“I think Zach was the one guy who really got us going in the second

half, energy wise,” Orris said. “He worked hard on both ends of the floor

and helped us generate some offense.”

The Eagles (6-12, 1-2) trailed by seven points with three minutes

remaining, before clawing their way back.

A Freddy Rodriguez jumper and a Matt Cachola three-pointer cut the CdM

lead to 42-40 with 2:17 remaining.

On their next possession. the Sea Kings battled hard on the glass and

had four opportunities to extend the lead, but were unsuccessful.

Junior Micah Young, questionable heading into the game with a sprained

left ankle, skied high for a rebound following an Estancia miss and was

fouled on the way down. He calmly sank two free throws with 30 seconds

left to tie the game at 42-42.

Young finished the game with 11 points and 10 rebounds in just more

than 15 minutes of action. “We wanted to bring him around slowly

tonight,” Estancia Coach Chris Sorce said. “He said he felt fine during

the warmups and he didn’t complain during the game.”

Young’s free throws helped set the scene for Shahangian. “We actually

called a sweet play during the timeout,” Shahangian said. “We got the

ball to Zach (Brewster), but he couldn’t get it to Snell in the corner,

so he gave it to me. I saw an open lane down the middle so I went after

it. It felt really good when it left my hand and I had a feeling it was

going to go in.”

Estancia tried to race down the floor for one last shot, but a 35-foot

heave slammed off the backboard as time expired.

“We were out of timeouts, so we just tried push up the court and get

off the best shot we could,” Sorce said. “We did everything we had to do

to win this game, but we just came up short. Give credit to Idean. He hit

the big shot. It was a great high school game.”

It was a low-scoring battle throughout the first half. Both teams

tried to find some offensive rhythm as the Sea Kings led, 17-15, at the

half.

Estancia trailed for most of the first half, but hung tough and

trailed by only one after three quarters.

Eliasar Maldonado, who led the Eagles with 15 points, hit a three-pointer with 7:15 remaining in the game to give Estancia its first

lead, 31-29.

But Corona del Mar responded with an 11-2 run of its own. Brewster,

Charlie Alshuler (nine points), Snell and Shahangian all contributed to

the run, giving CdM a 40-33 advantage.

“Our team knew we had this in us,” Shahangian said. “We played some

top-ranked teams in the preseason and I think that got us mentally

tougher for league play.”

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Corona del Mar 44, Estancia 42

Score by Quarters

Estancia 8 7 12 15 - 42

Corona del Mar 8 9 11 16 - 44

Estancia - Maldonado 15, Young 11, Rodriguez 5, D. Valbuena 4, Cachola

3, K. Valbuena 2, Prado 2, Romero 0.

3 pt. goals - Maldonado 1, Cachola 1.

Fouled out - none.

Technical fouls - none.

Corona del Mar - Shahangian 11, Brewster 11, Snell 10, Alshuler 9, K.

Mancillas 3, Glass 0, Marston 0, Richardson 0.

3 pt. goals - K. Mancillas 1, Shahangian 1.

Fouled out - none.

Technical fouls - none.