Eagles falter in semifinal

Rick Devereux

In a game of new versus old, the old nearly blew a 21-point lead.

Estancia High, led by first-year coach Jason Simco, lost, 60-58,

in the semifinals of the Coast Classic at Estancia to Northwood, led

by Tim O’Brien. O’Brien guided the Eagles program from 1987 to 1992,

hanging banners in the gym for claiming the 1989-’90 CIF Southern

Section Division III-A championship, the ‘90-91 CIF runner-up and the

‘90-91 Division III state championship.

“It’s always tough to win against the host team,” O’Brein said

before the game.

It didn’t look like it would be tough for the Timberwolves,

however, as Northwood (9-5) dominated under the boards and created

turnovers for easy layups to break open a 25-13 halftime lead.

“We got good looks at the basket,” Simco said, “but we just

couldn’t make our shots drop.”

Northwood widened the margin to 21 points midway through the third

quarter. With the score 47-26, Northwood maintained a 21-point lead

and headed into the fourth quarter.

“I told them I wanted to make it respectable,” Simco said. “I

didn’t want [other teams] to look in the paper and see that we got

blown out.”

Estancia (9-3) responded in a big way by creating turnovers.

Senior guard Ray Verrette was a big reason for the defensive

surge. He harassed Northwood inbound passes, leading the Eagles to

score the first 10 points of the final quarter and grab the momentum.

Senior wing-man Carlos Pinto scored after an offensive rebound and

junior Dallas Kopp hit a free throw to tie the game at 55 with 1:48

remaining, but freshman Zach Zaragoza nailed a three-pointer on

Northwood’s next possession.

Estancia plays San Clemente today at 6:25 p.m. in the third-place

game.

Estancia Tournament

Semifinal

Estancia 58, Northwood 60

Score by Quarters

*--*

Northwood 6 19 22 13 -- 60

Estancia 9 4 13 32 -- 58

*--*

Northwood -- Z. Zaragoza 11, Selway 21, Keough 2, Kapil 6, T.

Zaragoza 8, O’Brien 7, Parsel 3, Alkhas 2.

3-pt. goals -- Z. Zaragoza 3, O’Brien 1, Selway 1, T. Zaragoza 1,

Parsel 1.

Estancia -- C. Pinto 16, McDaniels 15, Sh. Markley 0, Montillo 4,

Kopp 6, Verrette 14, Molina 0, Escobedo 0, Fryslie 0, B. Pinto 3.

3-pt. goals -- Verrette 2, C. Pinto 1, McDaniels 1.