Boys basketball: Eagles advance with big win, 65-36

Richard Dunn

ANAHEIM - Even though Estancia High’s Eagles enjoyed a comfortable

halftime lead, they didn’t get fully warmed up until the second half

Wednesday as they defeated Whittier Christian, 65-36, in pool play of the

Garden Grove boys basketball tournament at Western High.

Coach Chris Sorce’s Eagles (5-4), winners of three straight, including

a 59-53 victory Tuesday over host Garden Grove, will face high-flying

Orange (9-0) in the championship semifinals Friday at 7:30 p.m. at

Western. Estancia and Orange are two of the tournament’s four pool

winners.

“Orange is definitely going to be a tall order,” Sorce said. “It is

going to be a good challenge.”

Estancia outscored Whittier Christian (3-7) in the first quarter,

19-7, on its way to a 33-19 halftime lead. But the Eagles, led by

5-foot-9 senior guard Jorge Prado (24 points), sizzled in the third

quarter as they outscored the Heralds, 24-9. Prado scored 15 of his

points in the third period, including three three-pointers.

“We really didn’t have a flow for the game until the second half,”

Sorce said. “We came out real strong in the third quarter. Maybe it was

my halftime speech that got them motivated.”

Estancia, also led by senior guard Fernando Maldonado’s 13 points,

finished 21 of 24 from the foul line (88%), including 11 of 12 in the

first half.

“We got off to a good start on both ends of the floor, offensively and

defensively,” Sorce said. “I challenged our guys to step up defensively

and they did ... we know we can score points, but if we want to have

success in our season, we need to play better on the defensive end.

Defense was a big theme for us tonight.”

In the third quarter, Prado scored 10 straight points for Estancia,

ignited by a three-pointer with 5:47 left in the period and capped by

another three-pointer with 3:39 on the clock to give the Eagles a 47-23

lead.

Joey Lindquist (eight rebounds), a 6-7 junior, scored on a putback

with 3:14 to play to crown the Eagles’ second-half opening 16-4 run.

Estancia led, 57-28, after three quarters, reaching its largest lead

of the game, 55-25, when Prado canned his third three-pointer of the

third quarter.

The Eagles led by 30 points on two other occasions in the fourth, but

never by more.

GARDEN GROVE TOURNAMENT

Estancia 65, Whittier Christian 36

Score by Quarters

Estancia 19 14 24 8 - 65 Whittier Christian 7 12 9 8 - 36

Estancia - Prado 24, Maldonado 13, Novak 8, Snell 5, Bradshaw 0,

Valdes 3, Lindquist 5, Pinto 7, Anderson 0.

3-pt. goals - Prado 4, Maldonado 1, Snell 1.

Fouled out - none.

Technicals - none.

Whittier Christian - Underwood 4, Hogue 13, Albeanu 6, Santos 4,

Oliaie 1, Duncan 4, Torres 4.

3-pt. goals - Albeanu 1.

Fouled out - none.

Technicals - none.