Prep Basketball : Sea View League : Estancia Makes Every Second Count in Its Win

Corona del Mar High School was three seconds away from upseting second-ranked Estancia and serving notice that last Friday’s 73-50 loss to Newport Harbor was more than a little misleading. Then it was four seconds. And what a difference that extra second made.

Estancia forward Scott Clements hit a 15-foot jump shot as time expired to give the Eagles a 41-40, Sea View League win Wednesday night at Corona del Mar. The one second officials added to the clock after the Sea Kings had taken a 40-39 lead was just the amount of time Estancia needed to avoid one of the season’s biggest upsets.

Clements took a pass from Adam Lockwood near the corner of the key and released a jump shot as the last second ticked off the clock. The shot was perfect. Moments later, Estancia students and players were celebrating at midcourt as if the Eagles had just clinched a league title. Corona del Mar Coach Jack Errion was kicking a chair near the Sea Kings’ bench.

It was a difficult game to lose, particularly under the circumstances. Lockwood forced a jump ball with eight seconds remaining. The Estancia senior outjumped Corona del Mar’s Rick Smirl, but the tip ended up in the hands of Sea King reserve forward Sean Turner. Turner gathered it in and went up for an easy layup with five seconds left to make it 40-39.

Estancia players signalled for a timeout after Turner’s shot, and the scoreboard clock showed three seconds to play. Estancia Coach Joe Reid protested, and, after a conference at the scorer’s table, the officials ruled that four seconds remained.

“I knew they were going to put another second on there,” Errion said. “You just go by what they say. That’s their job.”

During the timeout, Reid set up the last-second play. Lockwood took the inbounds pass, dribbled toward midcourt, and passed to Clements, who came up from the baseline to the corner of the key, and shot over Steve Morris, Corona del Mar’s 6-8 center. “It was a great pass by Adam to get him the ball,” Reid said. “He had two guys hanging all over him.”

The game-winner was Clements’ second this year. He hit a shot from the low post to give the Eagles a last-second win over Palos Verdes Chadwick in the Laguna Beach Tournament.

“It was exactly the shot we wanted,” Clements said. “I’m surprised I got it. I thought that Morris guy was going to block it.”

That Corona del Mar was even in a position to win was somewhat surprising, considering the Sea Kings shot just 33% (16 of 48) from the field. Junior forward Jeff Fryer, who was Errion’s most effective scorer during the tournament season, hit just 5 of 20 field goal attempts. Fryer still finished as Corona del Mar’s leading scorer with 16 points.

Estancia shot 45% (15 of 33) from the field, but seemed to hit the shots that mattered most. After trailing, 26-20, at halftime, the Eagles outscored Corona del Mar, 13-4, in the third quarter to take a 33-20 lead into the fourth quarter.

Clements and Todd Mooney had four points each during the Eagles’ third-quarter surge. Mooney led Estancia scorers with 14 points. Clements finished with 12.

Estancia is 2-0 in the Sea View League and 14-1 overall. Its only loss came to top-ranked Mater Dei. Corona del Mar is off to an 0-2 start in league play, but Errion isn’t ready to panic.

“It’s still early,” he said. “If we can play this hard every game, we’ll be able to make a run at it. We played hard tonight. We had a little breakdown there, but it wasn’t enough to take us out of the ball game.

“If only we could have played hard one second longer.”

ESTANCIA (41)--Lockwood 7, Clements 12, Mooney 14, Stamps 8, Furin 0.

CORONA DEL MAR (40)--Strauss 2, Zimmer 6, Fryer 16, Morris 10, Smirl 4, Turner 2.

In other Sea View League action:

Laguna Beach 55, Costa Mesa 53--Coby Naess hit a jump shot with 30 seconds remaining to break a 51-51 deadlock and give the Artists their second league victory. Naess, a 6-6 junior, ended the game with 20 points and 16 rebounds, 6 offensive. Freshman Scott Herdman sealed the victory with a pair of free throws with 10 seconds to play. The Artists shot 60% (12 of 20) in the second half.

Costa Mesa’s record fell to 5-7 overall, 0-2 in the league.

LAGUNA BEACH (55)--Naess 20, Jordan 3, Elfstein 6, Watford 18, Herdman 6, Fortune 2.

COSTA MESA (53)--Stroich 8, Louden 8, Makimme 8, Pelichowski 14, Judd 10, McIlroy 2, Rodriguez 1, Carlson 2. Saddleback 67, Woodbridge 53--The Roadrunners, using a full-court press, jumped out to an 18-2 lead and never looked back. Saddleback (2-0 in league) was led by Mark Walton’s 19 points. His brother, Bryant Walton, added 14. Saddleback’s reserves came off the bench to start the second quarter.

Woodbridge (0-2) went without a field goal in the second quarter, scoring only four points on free throws. The Warriors scored only two baskets in the first half, falling behind 32-8. Mike Murphy led Woodbridge with 13 points. WOODBRIDGE (53)--Murphy 13, Bryan 4, Lyon 11, Townshend 6, Sullivan 12, Keefe 5, Phillips 2.

SADDLEBACK (67)--Jones 4, B. Walton 14, Peterson 6, M. Walton 19, Deal 11, Cook 2, Golden 3, Butler 8.

Newport Harbor 71, University 49--Chuck McGavern had 12 points and 12 assists to lead Newport Harbor to its second league victory. Rob Mase had 18 points and 9 rebounds for the Sailors (11-2, 2-0). Brad Arnold paced University with 20 points.

NEWPORT HARBOR (71)--Mase 18, McGavran 12, Fraser 12, James 2, Beech 2, Lindsey 4, A. Lee 2, Sorenson 4, M. Lee 7, Haydu 8.

UNIVERSITY (49)--Paulson 12, Arnold 20, Winslow 12, Glassen 1, Mehrtens 2, Drljevic 2.