Girls’ Basketball: Laguna Beach snaps Eagles’ streak

Things seemed off early for the Estancia High girls’ basketball team on Monday night.

First was the fact that the Eagles were playing a Monday game in the first place. Second was that the Orange Coast League game against visiting Laguna Beach started at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than normal.

“We’re never good on Mondays in practice,” Estancia Coach Judd Fryslie said. “But, you know, you can’t use that as an excuse. Both teams played Monday.”

One team certainly played better than the other, though.

The visiting Breakers were never seriously challenged in the second half. Senior Jackie Cenan scored 17 points and Laguna Beach earned a surprisingly lopsided 45-30 victory, moving into a first-place tie with Estancia with one game remaining.

Laguna Beach (18-7, 8-1 in league) plays at home against Calvary Chapel on Wednesday, while Estancia (18-7, 8-1) is at Godinez. If both teams win, they will share the league title.

It would be just the Breakers’ second league title in the 43-year history of their program, as they also won the Pacific Coast League title in 2005. The Eagles are more used to winning. It would be Estancia’s fourth straight league title, but the first time in that run that they’ve had to share the crown.

Monday night’s loss also snapped a 27-game league winning streak for Estancia. It was the Eagles’ first league loss since falling at Costa Mesa on Jan. 14, 2014.

The first quarter was catastrophic for Estancia, which made two of 16 shots in the quarter and found itself trailing Laguna Beach, 13-4. Worse than that, senior point guard Maya Van Den Heever picked up three fouls in the first eight minutes.

“Missed shots, missed shots, got desperate, got behind,” Fryslie said. “We had no reason to get desperate. It’s a long game, but young people don’t understand that sometimes and start to panic. They’re not used to being behind. It’s been a while. Terrible reaction to it, but hey, that stuff happens.”

Van Den Heever, who Fryslie said had been battling a knee injury and sickness in the past several days, did not play again in the first half. She finished with just three points before fouling out late in the game. But the Eagles didn’t really have a backup point guard to take over. Junior Delani Guyot would have been it, Fryslie said. But with the early start time, she was still playing in the Estancia girls’ soccer game at Jim Scott Stadium.

“I wish I had her for the whole game,” said Fryslie, who instead didn’t get Guyot until the third quarter. “That would have made a big difference. We should have got the game time switched.”

Laguna Beach took a 22-12 halftime lead, then started the third quarter hot to take a 33-14 advantage on a three-pointer by senior Alexandra Lewis. The lead reached 20 points early in the fourth quarter on a baseline jumper by Laguna junior Rachel Kenney, who scored a season-high 11 points.

“Besides Alex and Jackie, who are my two studs if you will, I had other girls really step up and make some big shots,” Laguna Beach Coach Mark Lewis said. “[Kenney] made some big shots. Jasmine [Banks], I stuck her on Maya a lot. I told her, ‘I don’t care if you score a point, but if you keep Maya from scoring her normal 20 or so points, you’re going to be just as valuable as if you score 20.’ I thought she did a good job. She hunkered down and really stayed in front of Maya. It was just a great team win all around.”

Sophomore forward Finley Garnett had 13 points and 16 rebounds to lead Estancia, while Nefertiti Van Den Heever had seven points and eight rebounds. Senior Maddy Letterman scored five points, but Estancia never cut the lead to single digits.

The win meant a lot to the Breakers, specifically Cenan and Alexandra Lewis, who are four-year varsity starters.

“It’s huge, especially here [in Estancia’s gym],” Mark Lewis said. “They’ve been the cornerstones of my program and I’m happy for them ... They want to put another number on the banner [in our gym]. Hopefully this is the game that helps us get there. We still have Calvary on Wednesday and that’s going to be a tough challenge, but hey, we’ve put ourselves in the right spot.”

Fryslie said Estancia will try to get healthy with the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA playoffs looming next week. The Eagles are ranked No. 13 in the division.

They had a long talk in their team room following Monday’s loss. Fryslie said Letterman was a rare bright spot for Estancia in the game, with her defensive intensity.

“She was the only one playing her butt off,” Fryslie said. “She’s a senior, probably realizes just how close the end is. The other ones should realize too — I’ve got a lot of seniors — but they didn’t.”

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Orange Coast League

Laguna Beach 45, Estancia 30

SCORE BY QUARTERS

LB 13 – 9 – 15 – 8 — 45

Est 4 – 8 – 7 – 11 — 30

LB – Cenan 17, Kenney 11, Lewis 9, Lee 4, Banks 2, Brown 2.

3-pt. goals – Lewis 2.

Fouled out – Lewis.

Technicals – None.

Est – Garnett 13, N. Van Den Heever 7, Letterman 5, M. Van Den Heever 3, Wagner 2.

3-pt. goals – N. Van Den Heever 1, Letterman 1.

Fouled out – M. Van Den Heever.

Technicals – None.