Estancia Falls Victim to Costa Mesa’s Balance

Estancia went into Thursday’s Pacific Coast League opener against Costa Mesa hoping to knock off the league favorite.

Then the host Eagles went about doing it . . . for three minutes.

They made three of their first four shots, bolted to an early lead, then went kaput. Costa Mesa got key performances from some unlikely heroes in a 47-38 victory.

“[Estancia] should be proud of the way they played,” Costa Mesa Coach Jim Weeks said. “We have more tools than they have. . . . They made us work really hard.”

On a Costa Mesa team with Nancy Hatsushi, Autumn Smith and Jenny Earnest, it’s easy to get overlooked. But there was no overlooking the contribution of Leigh Marshall, who more than doubled her average with 10 points, including consecutive three-point baskets midway in the second quarter that ended a 16-2 run on the way to a 25-14 halftime margin.

The contribution of Barbara Trejo was significant, too. After Estancia whittled a 14-point deficit to nine and had clearly seized momentum, Trejo opened the fourth quarter with a three-point basket.

“That,” Estancia Coach Paul Kirby said, “was the dagger.”

Estancia scored only one basket over the next 5 1/2 minutes and the lead again reached 14. More importantly to Costa Mesa, Estancia ran out of time. Not even two three-point baskets by Becky Lenhart in the final 30 seconds could save the Eagles, who were led by Lauren Cassity’s 11 points and seven steals.

“You can’t catch up trading baskets,” Kirby said. “We couldn’t make any defensive stops when we needed to.”

Costa Mesa’s stars shined, too. Smith got in foul trouble and scored only four points, but was a factor, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking six shots.

Hatsushi scored 10 points and had seven rebounds and 10 assists.

And Earnest scored a game-high 16, four more than her average, and pulled down seven rebounds.

“[Earnest and Smith] need to score 30 for us,” Weeks said. “To score only 20, I’m very happy with the balance we got.

“That’s what I like about this team--it’s willing to take whatever the other team is willing to give us.”

In another league game:

Corona del Mar 57, Laguna Beach 22--Kristen McCoy had 13 points for visiting Corona del Mar (10-4, 1-0). Laguna Beach is 0-15, 0-1.