Eagles shut down Lewis, Saddleback

Patrick Laverty

The goal for Estancia High’s girls basketball team Tuesday in a key

Golden West League showdown with visiting Saddleback was to hold

Tanisha Lewis, the Roadrunners’ senior standout, to 10 points.

The Eagles fell two points shy of that goal, but they reached an

even bigger one, knocking off Saddleback, 50-44, behind strong

fourth-quarter defense, 24 points from senior center Nancy Castro and

some gutsy coaching decisions by Tami Rappa.

With her seven-player squad plagued by foul trouble throughout the

night, Rappa was forced to make some critical decisions. The most

important of those came when senior guards Krystal Mino and Trisha

Wase picked up their fourth fouls in the third quarter. Rappa decided

to leave them in the game.

“With the two of them off the floor, I don’t have a chance,” Rappa

said. “[Wase] is our playmaker and Krystal Mino is an important part

of our defense.”

Though both eventually fouled out, the moves paid off.

Mino picked her fourth foul with 6:22 remaining in the third

quarter and the Eagles trailing, 27-21. When she left the floor after

her fifth foul, with 2:53 remaining, the deficit had been cut to

42-40.

Wase, who sat out the final 11:15 of the first half and watched a

12-8 lead at her departure in the first quarter turn into a 24-19

halftime deficit, picked up her fourth foul with 2:10 remaining in

the third quarter and the Eagles trailing, 33-30. Her fifth foul

didn’t come until there were 26 seconds remaining in the contest and

Estancia had a 48-42 lead.

The victory was as important as Rappa’s decision to play her

backcourt with four fouls. Saddleback (11-4, 2-1 in league) came into

the game tied for first place with Ocean View and had beaten their

first two league opponents by an average of 35.5 points. With the

victory, Estancia (5-11, 2-1) remained just one game behind Ocean

View, which knocked the Eagles off in the opener.

“They wanted the game,” Rappa said of her team, which held

Saddleback to six points in the fourth quarter and forced 25

turnovers. “You saw the kids play with heart tonight.”

Lewis came into the game averaging 26.7 points. But she was taken

out of the game early by Imelda Pena, who was guarding her in the

Eagles’ box-and-one defense and limited her to one first-quarter

shot.

After foul trouble forced the Eagles to switch to a three-two

zone, they still did a good job of collapsing on Lewis when she

attempted to drive to the hoop. Lewis made just five of 15 shots in

the game, finishing with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

“Imelda did a great job defensively,” Rappa said. “I really

thought she took Tanisha out of the game early on.”

But Saddleback still held the lead throughout much of the game.

After tying the score several times in the second half, the Eagles

took their first lead since the first quarter when Olivia Maldonado

hit a three-pointer from the left corner with 2:30 to play, giving

Estancia a 43-42 advantage.

One minute later, Wase banked in a three-pointer, pushing the lead

to four points with 1:29 left.

A steal by Pena led to a Castro bucket with 43 seconds left,

giving Estancia a 48-42 advantage, all but sealing the outcome.

Castro played a huge role in the second half, scoring 16 of her

game-high 24 points. She also added a team-high eight rebounds for

the Eagles.

Maldonado scored five key fourth-quarter points and added five

rebounds in the game. Estancia also got a key contribution of the

bench from Jazmin Flores in the first half when Wase and Mino were in

foul trouble. Flores chipped in with two points and four rebounds.

*--*

Golden West League

Estancia 50, Saddleback 44

Score by Quarters

S’back 14 10 14 6 -- 44

Estancia 14 5 16 15 -- 50

Saddleback -- Lewis 12, Lomeli 0, Lete 8,

McElroy 16, Williams 4, Escobar 0, Lozano 0,

Perry 0, Ayala 4. 3-pt. goals -- Lete 1,

McElroy 2. Fouled out -- Williams Technicals

-- None. Estancia -- Wase 9, Mino 0, Pena 10,

Maldonado 5, Castro 24, Neal 0, Flores 2.

3-pt. goals -- Wase 1, Pena 2, Maldonado 1.

Fouled out -- Mino, Wase. Technicals -- None.

*--*