Eagles sputter in crunch time

Patrick Laverty

One of the points of emphasis with Estancia High’s boys basketball

team has been its youth. Starting two sophomores and two juniors, the

Eagles are expected to go through growing pains, but they are also

expected to learn from them.

Midway through the fourth quarter of the Eagles’ Golden West

League clash against Saddleback, Estancia Coach Russell King asked

his team to show its killer instinct. Instead, it let the visiting

Roadrunners back into the game.

Saddleback, winless in its previous eight league games entering

the contest, closed the game on a 20-4 run, eclipsing the Eagles,

44-37, and sending them to their fifth loss in six games.

“There’s still going to be things they have to learn,” King said

about his young team. “But we should be getting enough experience to

where we’re executing our offense and not turning the ball over at

the end of the game.”

The Eagles (11-12, 3-6 in league) trailed the entire first half,

when it made just 7 of 29 shots, but bounced back in the third

quarter.

Estancia took its first lead of the game with just under six

minutes remaining in the third quarter after a putback by Scott

Sankey. The Eagles expanded that lead with a 10-0 run that spanned

the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth. The

spurt was capped by a three-pointer from Carlos Pinto, who led

Estancia with 12 points and eight rebounds.

But Pinto was limited offensively by Saddleback’s diamond-and-one

defense. He was held scoreless, on just three shots in the first

half, but was a big part of Estancia’s second-half comeback, making

three turnaround jumpers in the third quarter.

With the Roadrunners, who held Pinto to a season-low five points

in the teams’ previous meeting this season, a 41-39 Estancia victory,

concentrating on the Eagles’ leading scorer, others needed to pick up

the scoring slack. But after Pinto’s three-pointer gave Estancia a

33-24 lead with 6:02 remaining in the game, the Eagles didn’t hit

another field goal until Pinto sank a three-pointer with 17 seconds

remaining.

Sankey finished with 11 points and nine rebounds and sophomore

Mike McDaniels added 10 points, but just five Eagles scored in the

contest. Estancia finished the game shooting only 15 of 50 from the

field (30%).

“We knew we needed to have a good shooting night,” King said. “We

got some good shots inside early, but we just couldn’t put the ball

in the bucket.”

Compounding the poor shooting were seven fourth-quarter turnovers

by the Eagles, which allowed Saddleback to score 20 points in the

final period after it scored just 24 in the first three combined.

Demetrius May scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth

quarter for the Roadrunners (4-19, 1-8), hitting on 7 of 7 free

throws in the period.

Despite Saddleback’s record, Estancia knew it was in for a tough

game based on the previous result between the teams.

“We have trouble matching up with a team with four or five guards

in the lineup,” King said.

The Eagles will be facing a similar situation on Thursday against

Santa Ana. Despite having the 11 wins mandatory to petition for entry

into the CIF Southern Section playoffs, King wants to get the Eagles

back on the winning track, but their final three games are against

three teams that beat them in the first round of league, including

rival Costa Mesa.

“We don’t want to rely on [the 11 wins], because they might not

accept us,” King said. “We definitely want to win out these last

three games. These next two games are really important. We really

need to defend our home court. We didn’t finish the job tonight.”

*--*

Golden West League

Saddleback 44 Estancia 37

Score by Quarters

Saddleback 10 10 4 20 -- 44

Estancia 3 14 11 9 -- 37

Saddleback -- Ory 9, Enriquez 2, May 18,

Alonso 5, Fitzgerald 7, Sanchez 0, Washington

0, Morales 3, Del Val 0. 3-pt. goals -- May

1, Morales 1. Fouled out -- None. Technicals

-- None. Estancia -- Pinto 12, McDaniels 10,

Escobedo 3, Kopp 1, Sankey 11, Markley 0,

Verette 0, Viramontes 0, Meissner 0. 3-pt.

goals -- Pinto 2, McDaniels 2, Escobedo 1.

Fouled out -- None. Technicals -- None.

*--*