By 
Expect another typical Mira Costa game in Saturday’s Championship, with bodies strewn all over the floor, on every play
by Paul Teetor
Thirty-two minutes of hell.
That’s what the Mira Costa boys basketball team unleashed on the Santa Barbara Dons in front of an ecstatic, adoring, standing-room-only home crowd last Saturday night.
Mira Costa is now within one game of the school’s first CIF Division One basketball championship after a gritty semifinal playoff win. And they have a whole week to contemplate an epic victory or a crushing loss Saturday night in the championship game.
The win over Santa Barbara was a typical Mira Costa game: bodies strewn all over the floor on every play, more bricks – by both teams — than on a beach-front construction project, and in the end a tapped-out opponent worn down by Costa’s relentless defensive pressure.
It wasn’t so much that the Mustangs outscored Santa Barbara as that they ground them down into dust and spit them out on their way to a 61-40 victory in a CIF Division 1 semifinal game – a game that was much closer and more dramatic than the final score indicates.
The win catapulted Costa into the Division 1 championship game against Los Alamitos next Saturday night at the Toyota Arena in Ontario.
Mira Costa led by only six points at halftime, 29-23. It was a low-scoring affair because neither team could establish any kind of offensive rhythm. The Mustangs were pressing full court, and paid special attention to Santa Barbara’s Luke Zuffelato, a 6-foot-6 center rated as one of the best prep players in California.
Any time Zuffelato touched the ball he was blitzed by two and sometimes three Mustang defenders and was forced to spray the ball out to his teammates, who took a bunch of open three pointers from the corners but only hit a couple.
For its part, Costa’s offense was misfiring so badly on jump shots and drives that most of its points were scored on second and third chance putbacks. The taller Mustangs dominated the rebounding battle.
Santa Barbara scored the first bucket, but its 2-0 lead was their only lead of the entire game.
Jakob De Armas readies for an emphatic slam dunk that brought the house down and shut the door on Santa Barbara . Photos by Ray Vidal
Playing in front of a joyous crowd getting their last chance to enjoy a home game after an incredible 29-3 season, Costa immediately tied the game when its spring-loaded forward, 6-foot-4 senior Jacob De Armas, scored on a rebound put back.
A few minutes later 6-foot-8 center Luke “Hammer Time” Hammerschmidt scored on a clever drop-off pass from slick point guard Christian Kranz and the Mustangs were up 4-2, a lead they never lost.
Halfway through the first quarter Costa Coach Neal Perlmutter sent in the first wave of substitutes – he used an eight-man rotation in this game – and they immediately began to pay dividends.
The only non-senior in the rotation – 6-foot-3 sophomore Paxx Bell – crashed the rebounding scrum for a stick-back and then drilled a deep 3-pointer for a 9-4 lead as the crowd had visions of a rout.
A few minutes later Bell connected on another 3-pointer for a 12-8 lead and the Mustangs were well on their way to a 14-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Mira Costa sophomore Paxx Bell drills a 3-pointer to give his team an early lead.
But Santa Barbara clawed its way back to tie it at 14-14, and once again anxiety set in among the screaming crowd. Temporary order was restored when 6-foot-4 senior Mac Bedner hit a short jumper and De Armas scored on a get-out-of-my-way drive to pump the Mustang lead up to 18-14.
Then Costa’s best player, 6-foot-7 senior forward Eneasi “Big E” Piuleini scored on a power drive and hit the foul shot for an old-fashioned 3-point play and a 21-14 lead.
The two teams played at the same frantic, frenetic pace all the way to the halftime buzzer as Costa maintained a slim 29-23 lead at halftime.
Early in the second half Santa Barbara kept fighting – against both the vociferous home crowd as well as the frenzied Mustang players – and pulled within 34-30 as Zuffelato rallied his troops and nailed a couple of three pointers to keep the Dons within shouting distance.
But the constant, relentless Costa defensive pressure was starting to take its toll and Costa finally put a little distance between the two teams . They finished the third quarter with a 38-30 lead.
Still, Costa fans reminded each other that the Dons had overcome a 10-point fourth quarter deficit against Mater Dei in their semifinal game to win in overtime 75-70. So there was still plenty of anxiety in the packed gym.
That’s why the crowd let out the loudest roar of the night when De Armas scooped up a loose ball and elevated for a slam dunk that electrified the house and gave the Mustangs a 40-30 and their first real feeling of confidence that they could pull off this amazing feat. After all, Costa had blown a 20-point lead to Mater Dei two years ago in a similar Division One semifinal game, but this game looked and felt different.
That feeling only grew stronger a minute later when De Armas grabbed another loose ball and did it again: he threw down an emphatic slam dunk that brought the house down and shut the door on any Santa Barbara hopes of a miracle comeback as the lead grew to 44-30. In this game that had been such a defensive struggle through the first three quarters, a 14-point lead felt like a 40-point lead.
The Santa Barbara players began arguing with the refs, and when that didn’t work they grew sullen on the court with slumped shoulders and puzzled looks. They simply didn’t have the energy to match Costa’s waves of relentless defenders contesting every pass, every shot, and indeed every dribble of the basketball.
When the lead grew to 52-32 with only four minutes left, everyone in the gym knew it was all over and the Mustangs had taken the penultimate step towards their first CIF Division One title.
Piuleini led Mira Costa with 19 points, Bedner had 16 and DeArmas finished had 12
But it was defense, not offense, that was responsible for this thrilling victory.
“I challenged the guys before the game,” Perlmutter said. “I said let’s show this team that we’re the best defensive team in Southern California.”
Mission accomplished.
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