Breakers surprise Estancia

LAGUNA BEACH — You can’t say Coach Xavier Castellano didn’t warn his Estancia High girls’ basketball team.

The Eagles traveled to Laguna Beach, a team with two victories. A win on Thursday night against the lowly Breakers kept Estancia all alone atop the Orange Coast League.

“You guys can’t come here thinking we’re going to walk all over them, we’re not,” Castellano said.

The first-year head coach was right.

Laguna Beach pulled off a 61-55 upset, ruining the Eagles’ opportunity to take sole possession of first place in league.

This one featured a lot of drama for Estancia, (14-9, 5-2 in league), ranked No. 13 in the CIF Southern Section Division IV-A coaches’ poll. Two players received technical fouls, two starters fouled out, and Castellano almost earned a technical as well.

When it ended, Castellano approached one of the referees and told him he did a great job.

“You saw [how the game was officiated],” Castellano said. “I’m not going to say anything about that.”

Castellano finally got out of the referee’s face. Then the first words out of Castellano’s mouth were, “We didn’t come ready.”

He repeated the sentence three times.

At the time, Castellano didn’t realize the Eagles missed out on a golden opportunity at Laguna Beach (3-17, 2-5).

Godinez beat Calvary Chapel, 44-43, Thursday night, leaving Godinez, Calvary Chapel and Estancia with two league losses each.

If Estancia had beaten the Breakers for the second time this season, it would have clinched at least a share of the league championship, the program’s first since the 2002-03 season.

Instead, Estancia plays host to Calvary Chapel in a regular-season finale Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

The Grizzlies wrapped up their regular season Thursday. Now, Godinez waits and sees who it will split the league crown with in its first varsity season.

Godinez can thank Laguna Beach.

Out of the three victories this season, two of them have come in league play, Costa Mesa and now Estancia.

Emily Writer played a major role in both. The sophomore didn’t live up to her 51-point performance on Jan. 22 against the Mustangs.

Castellano heard and read all about it, Writer smashing Laguna Beach’s single-game points record.

The versatile player finished with a game-high 32 points and added 10 rebounds and four steals. Eleven of those points came in the fourth quarter.