Eagles, Mesa to open league

Chris Yemma

With Golden West League girls basketball play scheduled to open

tonight, two Newport-Mesa teams are searching for the solution to

even up their records.

Estancia High (3-10) and Costa Mesa (4-10) both started their

seasons 2-2, relying heavily on outside shooting from a few key

players. But circumstances led both teams to start dropping games

rapidly after that.

Costa Mesa opens league play tonight at Westminster and Estancia

plays host to Orange. Both games are at 7.

The Eagles, who finished last season 11-16, 7-5 in league and lost

in the first round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs to Rosary,

were counting on senior Imelda Pena to lead them back to the

postseason.

But on Dec. 18, against Glendale in the Burroughs tournament in

Burbank, Pena went out in the first quarter with a season-ending knee

injury that altered the Eagles’ offensive style from there on out.

“It was a letdown because we depended on her a lot,” Estancia

Coach Ernie Wright said. “Now, we’re still trying to rethink how

we’re going to play without her. We were so used to her getting 20

points per game and then it was just jerked.”

The Eagles entered that game 3-5, ended up losing to Glendale,

41-31, and saw their losing streak extended to five with a 59-24 loss

to Edison Monday.

“Our offensive production has been down,” Wright said. “I want to

be optimistic, but I really don’t know what to expect.”

Before Pena went out, she was averaging 15.3 points per game and

had a career-high 27 against Santa Clara.

Pena was averaging more than three three-pointers per game and had

a career-high six against North Hollywood Dec. 17. Since her injury,

5-foot-1 junior Be Diep has tried to fill the shoes, averaging 14.3

points and hitting eight three-pointers in three games.

Costa Mesa enters league play also relying on its outside

shooting. The Mustangs rely on the three-point shooting and defense

of junior Bethany Vergara and the shorter-range games of juniors

Tracy Bjelland and Judie Akansel.

Vergara is averaging 8.2 points, including a game-high 20 against

El Toro last week when she nailed five three-pointers. Bjelland is

averaging 10.2 points and Akansel is averaging 7.4.

“I don’t see any favorites in the league,” Mesa Coach Jim Weeks

said. “Everybody’s got some good points and bad points.