Estancia girls show no eagle-eyed shooting

Eagles are held to their lowest scoring output in a foul-ridden home loss to previously winless Santa Ana Valley.COSTA MESA -- The Eagles landed Tuesday night, not a good thing when they should have been taking flight.

Estancia High was held to a season-low in scoring Tuesday night, losing to a previously winless Santa Ana Valley team, 39-21, in a nonleague game.

The Eagles’ final lead came in the second quarter at 13-11, after Be Diep’s basket off an assist by Lina You.

Santa Ana Valley proceeded to go on a 10-0 run that stretched from the last minute of the first half until 4:28 left in the third quarter. Kim Garcia and June Castro combined for eight of the Falcons’ points in the run.

The game moved slowly as both teams were in foul trouble. Estancia put the Falcons in the double bonus in both halves. The score could have been more lopsided, had Valley made more than 9 of 18 free throws.

Estancia Coach Ernie Wright felt the defensive effort was severely lacking.

“We were just reaching in with our arms, instead of playing position defense with our bodies,” Wright said. “That’s how we racked so many fouls tonight.”

Diep lead the Eagles (2-4) with eight points. The 5-2 senior point guard made two three-point shots and contributed two assists.

Diep also had a big impact on defense with eight steals in the game.

Of course, Diep had nothing on the Falcons, whose defense suffocated Estancia. The Falcons’ 2-3 zone defense forced Estancia into tough shots.

Estancia shot 17.6% on 6 of 34 shooting. From three-point range, the Eagles made 2 of 18 shots.

Wright said the team “had no flow at all, offensively.”

The result was the first victory for Santa Ana Valley Coach Brenda Ortiz, who said her game plan worked out just fine.

“We have been trying to play a good zone defense all year,” Ortiz said. “We wanted to clog the middle, and then not allow their shooters to get a good look.”

Estancia’s next game will be at home against Garden Grove on Dec. 20.

Nonleague

Santa Ana Valley 39,

Estancia 21

Score by Quarters