Elsinore team takes bite out of Eagles

Patrick Laverty

Two spurts, one loss.

Estancia High’s boys basketball team fell back on their heels for

less than four minutes Friday in the first round of the George

Yardley Cage Classic and in that time were outscored 20-0 as Elsinore

pounded out a 73-63 victory at Newport Harbor High.

Estancia dropped into the consolation bracket with the loss and

will resume play at 10:30 a.m. today.

The Eagles led, 18-15, after a Shaun Markley three-pointer began

the second quarter, but that was when Elsinore began its first run.

A putback, a three-pointer, one free throw and two short jumpers

later the Tigers had scored 10 unanswered points in 1:57, giving them

a 25-18 lead.

Estancia’s Carlos Pinto, who led the Eagles with 15 points, ended the spurt with a three-pointer, but the Eagles still trailed, 36-30,

at halftime.

They cut into that deficit and eventually tied the score, 40-40,

on a Markley bucket with 4:17 remaining in the third quarter, only to

watch Elsinore break loose once again.

This time it was a pair of free throws, a short jumper, a layup

and foul that produced a traditional three-point play, and a

three-pointer from beyond the arc that produced the Tigers’ second

10-0 run of the game, this one encompassed within 1:32.

“I’m sure it’s just them getting some baskets and us not making

any on our end,” Estancia Coach Chris Sorce said, sidestepping the

fact that the Eagles have just three seniors on the roster and count

heavily upon four sophomores. “Basketball is all about a game of

runs. I told my guys, you only get better by playing better teams.”

Elsinore, a school of more than 2,300 students, plays in Division

I-AA. Estancia plays in Division III-A, having an enrollment of

1,200.

The experience of playing against schools from larger divisions is

sure to help a team that is so young.

Sorce came away from the contest impressed with Markley, one of

the four sophomores, who made three three-pointers and scored 11

points, and junior Danny Argumedo, who scored all of his seven points

over the final 10 minutes of the game.

Senior Scott Sankey added 12 points for the Eagles and Raymond

Verrette finished with eight.