Orange puts the squeeze on Eagles, again

Barry Faulkner

Sometimes, all the strategy known to man can prove no match for

simple numerology. And, clearly, after Orange High earned a 65-55

Golden West League boys basketball victory at Estancia Monday night,

the Panthers seem to have the Eagles’ number.

“If we played those guys 10 times, I’m not sure if we could beat

them,” admitted frustrated Estancia Coach Chris Sorce, whose Eagles

were drubbed, 74-51, at Orange Jan. 17. “I used every defense we had

tonight and nothing worked. How do you beat these guys?”

Defense, which had spearheaded back-to-back wins last week against

Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, was, Sorce said, the culprit against the

Panthers.

“We’ve been playing defenses du jour the last couple games, using

a box-and-one against Santa Ana and a triangle-and-two against Costa

Mesa,” Sorce said. “Tonight, we threw every defense we had at them,

but they answered every challenge. We used our man-to-man, our zone,

even our freak defenses.”

The Eagles (16-9, 6-5 in league) never led, as the visitors

(14-10, 7-3), took a 5-0 lead, broke a 7-7 tie with nine straight

points, then answered an Estancia bucket with a 10-0 run, including

two Patrick Sanders three-pointers, to build a 26-9 bulge with 3:50

left in the first half.

A three-pointer by sophomore Carlos Pinto pulled the hosts to

within 51-45 with 7:04 left, but that was as close as the Eagles

would get.

The loss takes Estancia out of a chance to earn anything higher

than the seven-team league’s No. 3 playoff spot. And, with the

daunting challenge of finishing against league champion Ocean View

(10-0 in league) Friday at home, the Eagles could be caught or passed

in the standings by Santa Ana (5-5 in league). Either Costa Mesa

(4-6) or Saddleback (4-6) could also pull even with the Eagles,

though, since they play one another Friday, only one can have fewer

than seven losses. Santa Ana, Mesa and Saddleback all have two league

games remaining, while Estancia gets the league bye Wednesday.

The Eagles have spit their two league games with Santa Ana and

Saddleback, but have swept their crosstown rival.

“We have a tendency to get off to a slow start when we play at

home,” Sorce said. “We play like we’re on the road. We had a slow

start tonight, got behind the eight ball and had to play catch-up.

And when that happens, you have to use a lot of energy. We cut it to

six in the fourth quarter, and we had a layup, but we turned it over.

Every time we’d come back, we’d shoot ourselves in the foot.”

The Eagles shot less effectively from the field, connecting on

just 21 of 62 attempts (33.9%). Pinto paced an offense spearheaded by

the frontcourt, recording a team-high 19 points, including nine in

the second quarter, and grabbing eight rebounds.

Joey Lindquist, the Eagles’ 6-foot-8 senior center, contributed 16

points and a game-high 17 rebounds, while junior forward Jordan

Stroman added 14 points and four boards.

The other five Eagles who played, however, accounted for just six

combined points (on just 1-of-13 shooting from the field).

“Lindquist was a man tonight,” Orange interim coach Rick Rodabaugh

said. “We had no answer for him inside.”

Conversely, Orange backed up 25 points and 11 rebounds from Sanders, a high-flying 6-6 senior Division I prospect being recruited

by St. John’s, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State,

among others, with a pair of scorers in double figures.

Justin Collins, a 6-4 junior who popped for a season-high 24

against Estancia the first meeting, had 12 points, while Jonathan

Gama, a 6-1 sophomore, added 10. James Reeves came off the bench to

score nine, while junior guard Justin Ramirez posted seven for the

winners.