It was a shot that could have been a turning point. Instead it opened the door to a crushing defeat.
When Jacob Magelby, Mira Costa’s tallest player, went up for a layup early in the third quarter of Friday night’s non-league encounter with Chaminade of West Hills, the Mustangs were in the midst of a furious comeback rally. Trailing by only 2 points at 32-30, the layup could have tied the game and brought the Mustangs all the way back from a 19-11 deficit in the middle of the second quarter.
But three Chaminade players converged on the burly Magelby and several hands swatted the ball away. Chaminade grabbed the loose ball, raced the other way and scored on a fast-break layup. That started an 18-1 run that broke the game open and ultimately leveled Mira Costa’s early season record at 5-5.
After an encouraging win over Torrance earlier in the week, the 66-50 loss to Chaminade left Mira Costa Coach Jeff Amaral realizing the Mustangs still have a lot of work to do before they face a tough Bay League schedule starting in January.
“There are some things we still have to work on to get ready for League,” Amaral said after the game. “But our kids are hard workers and we’ll go right back to work tomorrow.”
The Mustangs will have ten days to work on fixing their problems before they travel south for the Torrey Pines Tournament, where they will play four games. That will be followed by two non-league games before opening Bay League play with an away game at Peninsula January 10.
The loss to Chaminade exposed both the Mustangs’ strengths and weaknesses, which often overlap. Their strength is that they have a half-dozen quick, good shooting players in the 5-foot-11 to 6-foot-2 range who move the ball well and play tough defense. Their weakness is that they have very little size and are often forced to go with a four-guard line-up with either Magelby or Cameron Steen manning the middle and trying hard to give them at least a minimal post presence.
Their strengths were on full display as they came back from the 19-11 hole they dug to open the game.
A Steen put-back and a nice 10-foot follow shot off a long rebound by Ryan White cut the Chaminade lead to 19-15. When Jackson Weaver drilled a long three-pointer it was 23-18, and Bobby Barkley came off the bench to cut it to 24-20 with a hard drive to the basket. Chaminade scored again, Barkley answered with another drive and it was 26-22. Chaminade’s leading scorer, Sebastian Lopez, connected on a three to grow the lead to 29-22. But Costa answered with a clever drive by sophomore Aaron Strings, younger brother of former Mustang star Justin Strings. The lead grew to seven at 31-24, but guard Tommy Waller drove for a bucket and guard/forward Brandon Chan hit two consecutive dribble drives to narrow it to 32-30 and set the stage for the blocked layup that could have tied the score but instead turned the tide in favor of Chaminade once and for all.
While the 16-point blowout loss had to be discouraging for Mustang fans, Amaral is confident his team will bounce back. “I think we’ll be all right by the time Bay League starts,” he said.
The Mira Costa scoring was led by White with 14 points and Barkley with 10. No one else finished in double figures. For Chaminade Lopez had 14 points, while Weston Crump and Calvin Igbanoi each chipped in with 11 points.
Costa’s Bay League rival Redondo was also at a .500 level Friday night after a 68-61 loss to George Washington of Denver, Colorado at the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas. That loss leveled the Seahawk’s record at 3-3 as they face three more games at the elite level Tarkanian tournament. Redondo will open Bay League play January 10 at Morningside, and will have an early showdown with Inglewood, the co-favorite in league play, on January 13.
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