Boys basketball: Eagles win

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA - Maybe now people will respect Estancia High’s Eagles,

who missed the CIF Southern Section boys basketball playoffs last year

with a 10-15 record.

“You need 11 wins (for playoff consideration),� Estancia Coach Chris

Sorce said with a mild grin, after his host Eagles improved to 11-8

overall and 2-1 in the Pacific Coast League with a 67-57 victory

Wednesday night over crosstown rival Costa Mesa.

“I don’t think anybody expected us to win,� added Sorce, whose program

lost both PCL encounters against Costa Mesa last year and three of the

last four. “Our seniors had never beaten Costa Mesa before.�

Estancia, which led most of the game, featured 6-foot-7 junior Joey

Lindquist inside. Lindquist finished with a team-high 22 points and 12

rebounds.

“I thought we had an advantage in the paint with Joey,� Sorce said.

“And he fouled a couple of players out.�

Costa Mesa (11-8, 0-3), which had two players foul out (including

center Jason Millward with 4:04 left in the third quarter), was led by

senior point guard David Conte, who scored a game-high 27 points.

“We had no answer for Conte, but we did a nice job on Chad Vakili (11

points on 1 of 12 from three-point shooting),� Sorce said.

“I think we’ve surprised some people. When Micah Young went down in

the second game of the season with a torn ACL, people said stick a folk

in Estancia.�

Fernando Maldonado (18 points), freshman Carlos Pinto (13) and Jorge

Prado (12) also scored in double figures for the Eagles, who outscored

the Mustangs in three of the four quarters.

“They outplayed us,� Costa Mesa Coach Bob Serven said of the Eagles.

“There were also two terrible officials, and you can put that in ... but

they just outplayed us in every facet of the game.�

Estancia built a 22-12 lead in the second quarter after Prado made

three from the foul line with 6:26 left. But the Mustangs rallied and

pulled to within two points, before Estancia took a 31-28 halftime lead.

Estancia never led by more than 10 points until Maldonado canned his

fourth three-pointer of the contest with 2:26 to play in the fourth,

giving the hosts a 64-50 advantage.

Pinto, a 6-3 forward who added nine rebounds, made 5 of 7 from the

field and 3 of 4 from the foul line.

Maldonado was 4 of 6 from beyond the three-point arc, while Lindquist

was 7 of 13 from the field.Costa Mesa, which led only once at 2-0, cut

Estancia’s lead to 49-44 at third quarter’s end, following a

three-pointer by Vakili.

“This was just an all-around team effort,� Sorce said. “We had our

three best practices of the season leading up to this game. Everybody

wanted this one.�