Boys’ Basketball: Eagles upset Mesa

Scoring has been an issue for the Estancia High boys’ basketball team. In the Eagles’ first four Orange Coast League games, they failed to crack 50 points each time.

The Eagles saved their best offensive performance for rival Costa Mesa on Wednesday.

Estancia knew it needed to produce to keep up with the second-place Mustangs, and it more than did in the first contest of the Battle for the Bell series.

Cameron Jones and Evan Pettingill led the host Eagles to a 68-53 upset of Costa Mesa, ending a three-game losing streak to the Mustangs.

Jones finished with 16 points and Pettingill had 15. The duo put away Costa Mesa in the fourth quarter, Jones scoring 10 points and Pettingill five.

Estancia, which entered the night in last place with Calvary Chapel and Saddleback, improved to 2-3 in league and moved into fourth with the victory.

“They beat Laguna Beach and they [almost] beat Godinez [last week], and we’re trying to get there,” Estancia Coach Xavier Castellano said of the Mustangs. “It’s [a win over Costa] Mesa and it keeps our playoff hopes alive. We had goals and the dream is still alive. We got a lot of people telling us that it’s not going to happen … because we lose a little bit, but I told the guys, ‘This is the first time we have [faced] adversity. This is a sign of a young program getting the experience it needs to get, and the guys are still believing.”

The Eagles came out and most likely ruined the Mustangs’ league title hopes. With Godinez winning at Calvary Chapel, 60-37, on Wednesday, the Grizzlies closed out the first round of league perfect.

The Mustangs are now two games back of Godinez with five to go. They share second place with defending league champion Laguna Beach at 3-2.

Estancia did a strong job against Costa Mesa’s top scorer, Nico Dasca. Even though he finished with 20 points, the Eagles made it tough for him.

“They were sending a double right away, so it’s our guys recognizing that we can’t rely on one guy to do everything, or two guys,” said Costa Mesa Coach Phil Weber, whose team dropped to 7-15 overall. “I don’t think we were ready tonight. We had a tough [57-55 loss] at Godinez on Friday. I thought we had prepared a lot better, and we looked good coming into [Estancia], and then I don’t know. They outplayed us tonight.”

The Eagles saw Jackson Winters and Alex Hendricks come off the bench and give them a lift. Winters led the team with nine first-half points, while Hendricks had seven.

Eleven of those points by the juniors came in the second quarter, helping Estancia go into halftime with a 36-31 lead.

The Mustangs had evened things up at 27-27, going on a 7-1 run midway through the second quarter. Estancia’s Conner Gray fired up Costa Mesa after he drained a wide-open three while Ben Swanson fouled in the corner. He taunted Swanson, and the referee gave Gray a technical foul. Gray missed his free throw, and Dasca, who had 10 points in the first half, converted the two free throws.

Estancia closed out the first half on a 9-4 run, and it continued to pull away at the start of the second half. Gray knocked down a three-pointer 32 seconds into the third quarter, and Pettingill made a three with 5½ minutes left in the third.

The third quarter was tough for Costa Mesa, which at one point only made one of 13 shots. Jack Perez, who had 11 points, allowed the Mustangs to cut the deficit to 48-39 in the waning seconds of the third.

But the Eagles extended the lead to 13 right away in the fourth quarter, thanks to two layups by Jones and one by Pettingill.

“Definitely [feels] a lot better than last year,” Jones said of seeing the Mustangs, who swept the two-game series last season, marking the fourth time in five seasons they claimed the rivalry. “We got whooped on [last season].”

The teams will close out league at Costa Mesa on Feb. 9. Castellano and the Eagles, who are 9-10 overall, aren’t looking that far ahead.

“Every win is a big win for us,” said Castellano, whose team’s 68 points are the second most it has scored this season.

Orange Coast League

Estancia 68, Costa Mesa 53

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Costa Mesa 16 – 15 – 8 – 14 — 53

Estancia 17 – 19 – 12 – 20 — 68

CM – Dasca 20, Perez 11, Villalpando 6, Swanson 5, Chavez 5, Hefner 4, Ayala 2.

3-pt. goals – Hefner 1, Perez 1, Villalpando 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

E – Jones 16, Pettingill 15, Winters 9, Gray 8, Brown 7, Hendricks 7, Fitzgerald 4, Sullivan 2.

3-pt. goals – Pettingill 2, Gray 2, Winters 1, Jones 1, Hendricks 1, Brown 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – Gray.