Eagles fly away in second half

Patrick Laverty

It didn’t take long for Russell King to get back into the rhythm of

coaching.

“As soon as I stood up and yelled and screamed,” the new Estancia

High boys basketball coach said.

It took the Eagles a little bit longer to get into the flow in

their season opener Wednesday. But once they did, they began to roll,

all the way to a 66-49 victory over visiting La Quinta.

“It was probably just jitters,” Estancia junior Carlos Pinto said.

“But at halftime we got everything under control.”

Estancia (1-0) trailed late in the second quarter before scoring

the final seven points of the first half on a three-pointer by

sophomore Mike McDaniels and two buckets from 6-foot-5 senior Scott

Sankey to take a 25-22 lead at intermission.

For Sankey, it was just his second and third field-goal attempts

of the game as the Eagles failed to take advantage of a distinct size

advantage. Not only was Estancia not looking inside to Sankey, 6-4

sophomore Dallas Kopp or Pinto (6-3), they were also struggling on

the boards against a team that started just one player over 5-9.

Through the first two quarters, Estancia’s rebounding edge was

just 20-16.

“It could just be first-game jitters,” King said. “You’ve got to

remember, we’re a young team. We’re going to make mistakes, but we

want to learn from them before league starts.”

The Eagles apparently learned their lesson at halftime. In the

third quarter they nearly equaled their point and rebound totals of

the first half, outscoring the Aztecs, 24-9, and outrebounding them,

18-5.

Pinto, McDaniel, Hugo Escobedo, Kopp and Sankey each had at least

three rebounds in the quarter. Estancia’s growing lead coincided with

that rebounding advantage and a more aggressive approach on offense.

After Sankey’s third field goal of the game gave Estancia a 33-28

lead with 4:45 remaining in the third quarter, McDaniel scored nine

consecutive points to increase the advantage to 42-28 with 3:02

remaining.

“We didn’t play our game in the first half,” McDaniel said. “We

came out with more intensity after halftime.”

McDaniel started his surge with a three-pointer from the left

corner. He then added two putback buckets, the first off his own

miss, and added a driving layup to finish off the run.

Estancia then closed the third quarter with a seven-point run,

including two buckets by Pinto, who led the Eagles with 19 points and

11 rebounds, and a three-pointer from just beyond half court by

Escobedo as time expired, pushing the lead to 49-30.

The Eagles also improved defensively.

La Quinta took the lead in the second quarter behind three

three-pointers from 5-4 senior guard Dean Otsuka, but the Eagles

prevented him from scoring from beyond the arc in the second half.

McDaniel finished with 14 points and seven rebounds for the

Eagles, while Kopp added nine points and 10 boards and Sankey

contributed nine points and eight rebounds.

*--*

Nonleague

Estancia 66, La Quinta 49

Score by Quarters

La Quinta 9 13 8 19 -- 49

Estancia 12 13 24 17 -- 66

La Quinta -- Fort 6, L. Nguyen 12, C. Nguyen

1, Lam 14, Otsuka 12, Phun 2, Tran 2. 3-pt.

goals -- Lam 2, Otsuka 3. Fouled out --

Jongenelen. Technicals -- None. Estancia --

Pinto 19, McDaniels 14, Verette 3, Viramontes

5, Escobedo 7, Meissner 0, Young 0, Kopp 9,

Sankey 9, Salas 0. 3-pt. goals -- McDaniels

2, Viramontes 1, Escobedo 1. Fouled out -- None. Technicals -- None.

*--*