CdM blitzes Eagles

Patrick Laverty

Earlier in the week, after a loss to Foothill High at the Estancia

Coast Classic, Corona del Mar boys basketball coach Ryan Curry was

critical of his team’s effort.

After the Sea Kings’ nonleague contest against visiting Estancia

Friday, any problems had been rectified.

Corona del Mar completely dominated the Eagles in its

second-to-last nonleague tuneup, knocking them off, 78-42, with what

was easily its best effort of the season.

“It’s that whole idea that we can play harder,” Curry said.

Not much harder than the Sea Kings (8-7) did against the Eagles

(8-6).

On the game’s first possession, Estancia used its height advantage

to collect four offensive rebounds before junior Carlos Pinto scored

a bucket. Curry immediately called a timeout, emphasized defense and

rebounding, and everything changed.

The Sea Kings scored the next seven points and went on a 17-2 run

as they made seven of their first eight shots.

On the defensive end, senior guard Pancho Seaborn took on the

assignment of guarding Pinto, who came into the game averaging 21.5

points per game. And while the Sea Kings’ leading scorer (17.1 ppg)

expended most of his energy on defense, his teammates picked up a lot

of the scoring.

Jay Northridge led CdM, which missed just three times in the first

quarter and shot 18 of 26 in the first half (69%), with 17 points

over the first two quarters and finished with a game-high 21. He made

6 of 7 first-half shots, including 3 of 4 from beyond the three-point

arc, as the Sea Kings opened a 44-16 lead at the break.

Estancia, coming off a second-place finish at the Coast Classic

(CdM finished seventh), seemed to be in shock. The Eagles are

scheduled to open Golden West League play Monday against league

favorite Ocean View and this wasn’t the tuneup they were hoping for.

“It’s definitely a setback from the way we played in the Coast

Classic,” Estancia Coach Russell King said.

The Eagles struggled against CdM’s full-court, man-to-man pressure

and allowed numerous transition baskets as the Sea Kings practiced

exactly what Curry preaches: defense, rebounding and transition

basketball.

After Estancia’s early dominance on the glass, CdM picked things

up, outrebounding the Eagles, 26-15, in the second half. Leading the

charge was 6-foot sophomore Ryan Lance who came off the bench to

score 13 points and grab eight rebounds, seven in the second half.

“Offensive rebounds, we gave up too many of those,” King said.

“They just wanted the ball more than we did. They outhustled us in

every facet of the game. They deserved to win.”

It was exactly the effort Curry was looking for as the Sea Kings

get ready for Pacific Coast League play. CdM will have one final

nonleague game against Canyon of Anaheim Wednesday before opening

league against Laguna Beach on Friday.

“Our big thing is effort,” Curry said. “That’s the kids’ job.

That’s what we go over.”

Seaborn, who finished with 17 points and eight rebounds, limited

Pinto to 3 of 13 shooting in the first half and forced him to take

difficult shots throughout the game. Pinto still finished with 13

points for Estancia, which was led by senior Scott Sankey’s 14, but

the defensive intensity of Seaborn and the Sea Kings seemed to rattle

the entire Eagles team, which made just 7 of 30 shots in the first

half and made 14 of 54 to finish at (26%).

In addition to Lance’s work off the bench, senior guard Adam

Freede also came in as a substitute to score 13 points, most of them

in transition as CdM never let the lead fall below 26 points in the

second half.

*--*

Nonleague

Corona del Mar 78, Estancia 42

Score by Quarters

Estancia 7 9 15 11 -- 42

CdM 19 25 16 18 -- 78

Estancia -- Pinto 13, McDaniels 1, Markley 0,

Viramontes 4, Sankey 14, Escobedo 8, Meissner

2, Young 0, Kopp 0, Salas 0. 3-pt. goals --

Escobedo 1, Sankey 1. Fouled out -- None.

Technicals -- None. Corona del Mar --

Northridge 21, Watanabe 2, Seaborn 17,

MacDonald 4, T. Lance 2, R. Lance 13, Freede

13, T. Welch 0, Reynolds 2, K. Welch 2,

Kabaklian 2, Manni 0. 3-pt. goals --

Northridge 3, R. Lance 1, Seaborn 4. Fouled

out -- None. Technicals -- None.

*--*