Eagles light it up!

Barry Faulkner

If, as a popular philosophy proposes, the journey takes precedence

over the destination, Estancia High’s lopsided boys basketball

victory Monday wasn’t as pleasant as the final score might indicate.

“The hardest part about today’s game was getting here,” Estancia

Coach Chris Sorce said after the Eagles’ 81-29 first-round pool-play

victory over El Monte in the Garden Grove Tournament at Garden Grove

High.

“Our bus came late, it broke down, we got lost, then, when we got

off the bus, we had to wade through puddles and lakes to get into the

gym. Guys were worried about their shoes, socks and pants getting

wet. The game was an afterthought.”

The game, such as it was, was over before Sorce’s socks were dry,

as the Eagles (4-1) scored the first 16 points, en route to a 23-2

lead after the first eight minutes.

It was 31-2 with 4:48 left in the first half and the Eagles

settled for a football-esque 41-7 bulge at intermission.

It was 59-12 with 2:26 left in the third quarter, before Sorce,

who had substituted liberally to that point, sat the starters for

good.

Starters Joey Lindquist (14 points), Carlos Pinto (12) and Zack

Novak (11) were among five Eagles in double figures. Junior guard

Tyler Hoffman came off the bench to score a career-high 14 points,

including a trio of three-pointers, and reserve forward Jordan

Stroman chipped in 10 points.

The 52-point margin of victory was the biggest in the history of

the program, now in its 30th varsity season. The 29 points was also

the fewest allowed by an Estancia team in 230 games, dating back to a

54-23 win over Costa Mesa in the 1993-94 campaign.

“Offensively, I was very happy,” Sorce said. “We pushed the ball

and got a lot of points on the break. (The 0-7 Lions) played zone,

which was good for us, because we needed a little work on our zone

offense.

“We had a definite height advantage, so we emphasized pounding the

ball inside.”

Junior forward Scott Sankey contributed eight points and six

rebounds, while Lindquist and Pinto shared the team lead with seven

boards apiece.

Novak, whose 5-for-5 shooting from the field helped the Eagles

shoot 54% (35 of 65), added five assists, four steals and two

rebounds.

Senior point guard Matt Cachola had six assists to go with his

three points, while sophomore Hugo Escobedo added six rebounds, four

points, two assists and one steal in his best varsity performance to

date.

Junior Kendall Meissner scored his first varsity points with a

fourth-quarter field goal as El Monte guard Dan Arechiga scored all

13 of his team’s fourth-quarter points to cut into an Estancia lead

that peaked at 71-16.

In addition to the Eagles’ runs of 16-0 and 15-0 in the early

going, they put together bursts of 12 and 11 consecutive points later

in the contest.

El Monte, which finished with 20 turnovers, made just 7 of 33

field-goal attempts the first three quarters (21%), before finishing

at 25% (11 of 44).

The Eagles visit La Quinta tonight at 7 for a nonleague clash,

then return to tournament pool play Wednesday against host Garden

Grove at 7:30 p.m.