Girls’ Basketball: Eagles keep Bell
A half-court shooting contest was featured Thursday night at Costa Mesa High, at halftime of the second Battle for the Bell girls’ basketball game.
Costa Mesa athletic director Sharon Uhl invited students from both schools down to the court to shoot for $1, with the prize being a free hot dog meal.
“We’re stealing this from our friends at Estancia,” Uhl said to the crowd.
Costa Mesa student Dion Taylor won the meal, sinking his half-court shot. But the Mustangs weren’t about to steal the bell from the Eagles, too, in the Orange Coast League game.
Estancia keeps it for the third straight year after beating its cross-town rival for the second time this season. Freshman forward Finley Garnett overcame a slow start to score a game-high 18 points as the Eagles beat the Mustangs, 52-31.
Estancia (16-8, 8-0 in league) also clinched at least a share of its third straight league title. The Eagles are two games ahead of Laguna Beach and Godinez, which are tied for second place.
The Eagles, ranked No. 11 in CIF Southern Section Division 4AA, have won 17 straight league games since suffering a league-opening loss at Costa Mesa last year. They always find their rival’s gym a tough place to play. Thursday’s game was also closer than the score indicated.
“It took a while for them to calm down, but they did,” Estancia Coach Judd Fryslie said. “They calmed down a lot in the second quarter. It was tough on the freshman [Garnett] tonight. She’d never experienced quite that noise coming down from above.”
Senior guard Slade Garnett, Finley’s older sister, had 16 points, four three-pointers and four steals for the winners. Senior post Eliza Jason had eight points, 11 rebounds and four steals. Junior point guard Maya Van Den Heever finished with four points, five rebounds and five steals, while senior guard Gianna Guyot had four points. Guyot was also instrumental on defense in guarding Mesa junior guard Katie Lawrence, who finished with six points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
Finley Garnett was scoreless in the first quarter, missing all five of her shots, and Estancia junior point guard Maya Van Den Heever picked up two fouls in the first three minutes of the game.
“She’s a freshman,” Slade said of her younger sister, “so she’s always kind of jittery in the games, excited. She doesn’t have as much experience as us, but she’s got a lot of talent. We just have to calm her down.”
Costa Mesa led 13-9 early in the second quarter on a three-pointer by Lawrence before Estancia went on a 10-0 run, keyed by steals and layups.
“It’s just momentum,” Costa Mesa Coach Nichole Maddox said. “They had the momentum when it was time, and we couldn’t stop their momentum.”
The Mustangs (7-17, 2-6 in league), led by senior forward Aubriona Mathis’ 14 points and 12 rebounds, pulled within six points midway through the third quarter on a three-pointer by junior guard Lizette Gomez. But Estancia ended the quarter by scoring nine straight points, six of those by Finley Garnett, and never looked back.
The Estancia fans chanted “MVP” as Maya Van Den Heever stepped to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Despite an off shooting game, she impacted the contest with her energy.
“Even if she’s off, we can all still play really well,” Jason said. “I’m not saying we can play without her, but you can see how the rest of the team tightens up to fill in those spaces.”
Estancia can clinch the outright league title with a win at Saddleback on Monday night. The atmosphere for that game probably won’t be as crazy, but Slade Garnett said she doesn’t mind the pressure.
“This is how my old school in Texas was all the time, crazy like this,” Garnett said. “I like this atmosphere a lot … I’m really excited for playoffs. We don’t have that great of a league [but] I feel like each game, we’re working on playing our game and getting it to be better, so that for playoffs we can compete.”
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Orange Coast League
Estancia 52, Costa Mesa 31
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Est 11 – 9 – 11 – 15 — 46
CM 9 – 4 – 9 – 9 — 31
Est – F. Garnett 18, S. Garnett 16, Jason 8, Guyot 4, M. Van Den Heever 4, Wagner 2.
3-pt. goals – S. Garnett 4, Guyot 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
CM – Mathis 14, Lawrence 6, Crenshaw 4, Gomez 3, Cabrera 2, Aguirre 2.
3-pt. goals – Lawrence 1, Mathis 1, Gomez 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
