Girls’ Basketball: Estancia does it Maya way
Maya Van Den Heever does it all for the Estancia High girls’ basketball team. The junior point guard/power forward handles the ball, scores in the paint and from beyond the three-point arc, deftly and deferentially passes to her teammates, rebounds and defends.
She even contributes when not on the court, verbally sparring with and cajoling teammates, and relentlessly unleashing her mega-watt smile on fellow players and coaches alike, as if to cover the off chance that there might also be a building morale column on the stat sheet.
Van Den Heever, who returned recently from Fiji, where she led the Solomon Islands U19 team in the Oceania Championships, indeed registered in every category Saturday to help lead the Eagles to a 46-41 nonleague road win over Newport Harbor.
Van Den Heever amassed a game-high 15 points, while adding eight rebounds, eight steals, six assists and one blocked shot.
The 5-foot-6, two-time Newport-Mesa Dream Team honoree sank a three-pointer to cap a 10-0 second-quarter run that gave the Eagles (7-7) control of the game.
The third-year starter, who has twice been first-team All-Orange Coast League, made back-to-back three-pointers in a 24-second span early during an 18-0 Estancia surge to open the second half that led to a 19-2 third-quarter advantage and a 43-18 lead heading into the final period.
Alas, Van Den Heever’s aggressive abandon on defense, which helps keep her in passing lanes, in opposing coaches’ hair, and contributed to 33 Newport Harbor turnovers, led to her fouling out with 5:00 left. Van Den Heever’s early exit considerably helped enable the Sailors’ late run that closed what once was a 27-point deficit to the significantly more snug final margin.
The Tars were two possessions away from the lead with 19.7 seconds left, but could not do any further damage.
“She does a lot for us,” Estancia Coach Judd Fryslie said of Van Den Heever. “She has to take better care of her fouls. She’s a really solid player who could do more, but she’s always looking after her teammates.”
Van Den Heever did plenty to impress Sailors Coach Shelly VanDusen.
“She is a great player,” VanDusen said of Van Den Heever. “She’s smart, she can shoot the three, she can drive and she can dish. She’s very unselfish and she sees the court.”
The action on the court created an even contest through the first 10 minutes as the Tars led, 11-10, after one quarter and were up, 15-12, until a three-pointer by Estancia’s Gianna Guyot sparked the aforementioned 10-0 run that created a 22-15 Eagles advantage with 3:57 left in the first half.
Newport Harbor had 11 turnovers and made just two of 13 field-goal attempts in the second period, but its offensive struggles got even worse in the third quarter.
The Sailors failed to connect on their first 10 field-goal tries after halftime before senior guard Alexis Jimenez produced a steal and a layup with 11 seconds left in the period that halted a scoreless drought of 9:19. The bucket by Jimenez, who came off the bench to score nine points, all in the second half, ended a span of nearly 11 minutes without a field goal for the hosts.
A full-court press and half-court trap helped the Eagles beach the Sailors’ offensive flow.
“Well, that’s one of our strengths,” Fryslie said of the pressure, which contributed to a frenetic pace that included 30 Estancia turnovers.
Finley Garnett had eight points and eight rebounds for the winners, for whom Nefertiti Van Den Heever, Maya’s twin, chipped in eight points.
Senior Kendra Munguia led the Sailors with 20 rebounds, 11 points and six steals, while junior McKenna Izzi had eight points, seven rebounds and four steals.
Newport Harbor visits Back Bay rival Corona del Mar on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Estancia plays host to Segerstrom on Thursday in the final tuneup before beginning its Orange Coast League schedule.
Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5
Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5 ((
Nonleague
Estancia 46, Newport Harbor 41
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Est – 10 – 14 – 19 – 3 — 46
NH – 11 – 5 – 2 – 23 — 41
Est – M. Van Den Heever 15, Garnett 8, N. Van Den Heever 8, Jason 6, Letterman 5, G. Guyot 4.
3-pt. goals – M. Van Den Heever 3, G. Guyot 1, Garnett 1.
Fouled out – M. Van Den Heever.
NH – Munguia 11, Jimenez 9, Izzi 8, Rodriguez 6, Yardley 3, Doolin 2, Hamilton 2.
3-pt. goals – Izzi 2, Yardley 1, Jimenez 1.