Eagles win after delay, top-seed next

For many of Louisville’s fans, it took up to two hours to travel from the San Fernando Valley to Estancia High on Saturday. Traffic on the 405 Freeway held them up.

When they arrived, the fans had to wait almost another 1 1/2 hours for the start of the second-round game in the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA girls’ basketball playoffs. The delay this time was because there were no referees to officiate the contest.

One of the refs showed up to the gym 49 minutes late to the scheduled 7 p.m. tip, the second was 75 minutes behind. This didn’t sit well with the visiting fans.

The Royals’ faithful wasn’t too happy when the contest began, seeing its team miss its first nine shots to fall behind early. Louisville could never recover, and by the time No. 8-seeded Estancia won, 57-45, the visiting crowd couldn’t wait to go back home.

Estancia (19-8) ended No. 9 Louisville’s season and advanced to the quarterfinals to play at top-seeded JSerra (21-6) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Royals (17-10) don’t plan to go out quietly.

“We’re going to look into it for sure,” Louisville Coach Bob Dacorsi said about protesting the game to the CIF Southern Section office because of the delay. “I thought [the referees] did a good job. I’m not protesting about the quality of referees, I’m protesting about the start of the game time, an hour and a half late. You drive 2 1/2 hours and you expect the game to start at 7 o’clock, and it starts at 8:30.

“The referees went to Esperanza High School and not Estancia [was the explanation Estancia school officials gave me]. I don’t know [if I buy that explanation]. I don’t know what I buy anymore.”

The Eagles believe they earned their ticket to their second quarterfinal appearance in three seasons. They only needed to win one game because they opened the playoffs with a first-round bye.

When the Eagles’ second-round game came, they looked ready, even though they had to wait around just like Louisville. They jumped out to a 15-6 first-quarter lead, and then went into halftime up, 25-14.

“The CIF assignor or the person that was going to pass the word on to the assignor gave the officials Esperanza as the location, instead of Estancia,” Eagles Coach Judd Fryslie said as why the officiating crew showed up late.

“It was a weird game. There was no doubt about that. It affected different people differently.”

It sure didn’t affect the Eagles much. Finley Garnett led the way with 18 points, four assists and three steals, while Maya Van Den Heever finished with 10 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Eliza Jason contributed 10 points and five rebounds, and Nefertiti Van Den Heever had six points and 10 rebounds.

Soula Bacoulis finished with a game-high 20 points for the Royals, who shot six-for-28 in the first half. The sluggish shooting performance might have had something to do with the late start.

“The hardest thing would be to refocus because there’s a lot of other stuff going on,” Fryslie said.

CIF Southern Section Division 4AA playoffs

Second round

Estancia 57, Louisville 45

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Louisville 6 – 8 – 12 – 19 — 45

Estancia 15 – 10 – 16 – 16 — 57

L – Bacoulis 20, Weiner 5, Cruz 5, Azzuz 5, Lynch 4, Wilbur 2, Inouye 2, Annen 2.

3-pt. goals – Bacoulis 3, Cruz 1, Azzuz 1.

Fouled out – Azzuz.

Technicals – None.

E – F. Garnett 18, Jason 10, M. Van Den Heever 10, N. Van Den Heever 6, S. Garnett 5, Martinez 3, G. Guyot 2, Gomez 2, D. Guyot 1.

3-pt. goals – S. Garnett 1, M. Van Den Heever 1, F. Garnett 1, Martinez 1.

Fouled out – F. Garnett.

Technicals – None.