PREP BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Fuerbringer Gets Fired Up in Estancia Victory

A rowdy crowd of Century boys’ basketball fans did almost everything right Wednesday night.

They got on the refs. They chanted and cheered wildly for the Centurions. They threw confetti after big plays.

But they might also have inadvertently fired up Estancia center Matt Fuerbringer.

Fuerbringer scored 11 points in the fourth quarter after a sluggish start to lead the Eagles to a 63-61 Pacific Coast League victory over Century at Estancia.

The 6-foot-7 Fuerbringer had only four points at halftime, and his missed dunk midway through the third quarter had the Century fans calling “Lurch” and humming the theme from “The Addams Family.”

But what’s the saying about sleeping giants?

Fuerbringer came alive in the final 12 minutes, scoring 17 points in that stretch with strong inside moves. Estancia coach Tim O’Brien didn’t know how much the taunts from the Century spectators bothered Fuerbringer, but he was happy his star player came through in the clutch.

“Matt’s been around long enough so that kind of stuff doesn’t really bother him,” O’Brien said. “I’m sure he heard it, though, so I know it felt good to quiet them down. (Century) wouldn’t go away, and we needed Matt to be our go-to guy when it counted.”

Estancia (13-4, 2-0), fourth-ranked in Orange County, had a 53-45 lead after a Fuerbringer basket with 4 1/2 minutes remaining. But Century (12-4, 1-1) went on a 7-0 run to pull within 53-52 with 2:41 left.

Enter Fuerbringer, who finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds. He scored six critical points the rest of the way, including an important tip-in with 30 seconds left to give the Eagles a 61-56 lead.

Century’s Damien Hamler responded with a three-pointer to make the score 61-59 with 20 seconds left. Century then fouled Jim Faulkner, who made two free throws with 12 seconds left to clinch the victory.