EMPIRE LEAGUE GIRLS’ ROUNDUP : Eggleston Leads Cypress to Victory

El Dorado may have made Jessica Eggleston a non-factor--for a half--but it came with a price.

The Golden Hawks’ pushing, shoving and slapping around limited the county’s leading scorer to six first-half points, but the resulting foul trouble opened the door for Eggleston to dominate the third and fourth quarters as third-ranked Cypress scored a 59-37 victory over El Dorado.

Cypress (19-2, 5-0) remained unbeaten in the first half of Empire League play, and will play its primary threats to the title--last year’s co-champions, Katella (4-1 in league) and El Dorado (13-6, 3-2)--at home in the second round.

Eggleston finished with typical numbers, 28 points and 14 rebounds. She was averaging 29.9 and 11.3. At the half, she had three rebounds to go with her six points--all scored in the second quarter--as the Centurions took advantage of 11 turnovers in the quarter to take a 25-22 lead. El Dorado had held a 14-8 lead.

But three El Dorado players had three fouls--Michelle de Bruijn, Shanna Renken and Sarah Hinkle. Despite Eggleston’s two-for-eight first-half shooting, Cypress continued to pound the ball inside to Eggleston, their 6-foot senior captain, and she responded with nine consecutive points as the Centurions stretched their 29-27 lead. Twice Eggleston scored on Cypress’ third shot of the possession.

“I think their foul trouble had something to do with it,” said Eggleston, whose lowest output this season was 14 points in a five-minute appearance before being hurt. “I just knew I had to play hard and box out; my teammates did a good job of getting me the ball.”

Julie Adams had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Anna Bozarelos had nine rebounds.

El Dorado trailed by nine after three quarters, but Eggleston scored Cypress’ first eight points of the fourth--part of a 10-point run--to put the game on ice.

Freshman Jamie Nebeker had 10 points and 11 rebounds for El Dorado, and Renken had 11 points and eight rebounds.

“Everybody played well,” Cypress Coach John Selbe said. “We made some mistakes, but we played some good defense as well.”

In other league games:

Katella 53, Esperanza 42--Katella (9-7, 4-1) remained in second place as Chris Carrillo paced the Knights with 22 points.

Loara 61, Los Alamitos 58--Loara (2-10, 1-4) won its first league game in two years as the Saxons overcame a one-point halftime deficit.