GIRLS’ BASKETBALL ESTANCIA CLASSIC : Marina Has No Trouble Beating Estancia for Title

Sonya Bryant spoke in hushed tones, but her actions a few minutes earlier spoke louder than words. And her words were pretty exact.

“I thought I missed a couple of easy shots,” she lamented, “but I got into it in the second half shooting-wise. I was always into it defensively.”

Bryant, a Marina junior, excelled on defense and scored a game-high 15 points as her Vikings won the Estancia Classic, 61-37, with a victory over the host team.

Marina (8-0), ranked No. 4 in The Times’ preseason poll, bolted to a 13-0 lead and turned back every Estancia rally with one of its own in winning its second tournament of the season.

Bryant, an all-tournament selection, missed three of her first four shots, but made three of four in the second and fourth quarters as Marina beat back the Eagles. She held Estancia’s Cyndi Richards scoreless in the first half; Richards scored 10 in the second half after Bryant moved elsewhere to compensate for Shandy’ Robbins’ foul trouble.

Richards was matched by teammate Jessica Waltz with 10 points; both made the all-tournament team, along with Marina’s Natalie Nakase.

“We put together two or three good runs,” Estancia Coach Russ Davis said, “but if you expect to play with one of the top two or three teams in the county, you’ve got to play four quarters.

“They’re on a different level than us--let’s be honest.”

Estancia came back from the early 13-0 deficit and pulled to within six midway through the second quarter, then Bryant scored six points in Marina’s 13-2 run. The Vikings stretched the lead to 22 points, 42-20, but after Estancia cut the lead to 13, Marina outscored the Eagles, 15-4, over the next eight minutes.

“We picked a bad time to play our worst game of the year,” Davis said, “but a lot of that had to do with the way Marina played.”

Said Marina Coach Pete Bonny: “When you play a team like us or Woodbridge, that’s going to happen sometimes.”

Estancia is 6-2; its other loss is to Woodbridge, the No. 1 team in the county.

Marina got a well-rounded effort from its post players. In addition to Bryant’s 15 points, nine rebounds and three steals, Robbins--the tournament most valuable player--had 13 points, eight rebounds and four steals, and Kirsten Cappel had 13 points and nine rebounds.

As a whole, Marina made 25 of 49 shots from the floor; Estancia was 12 of 41 (29%).

In other tournament games:

Irvine 53, Santa Fe Springs St. Paul 32--Jenna Bodholdt had 20 points and 12 rebounds and Thea Christenson added eight points to lead Irvine (6-2) to the consolation championship.

Diamond Bar 70, Saddleback 48--Diamond Bar won the third-place game.