All Ball: Costa boys, Redondo girls reeled in after strong postseason showing
by Paul Teetor
Twenty-two points. That was the super-sized, huge-upset-in-the-making lead the Mira Costa boys basketball team held over Mater Dei late in the first half of their playoff game Friday night.
But by halftime the lead had been whittled down to 17 points. By the end of the third quarter it was down to eight points. And in the end, Mater Dei completed its incredible comeback to claim a 60-54 win in the CIF Division 1 semifinal game.
The pain of the devastating loss and the blown lead won’t go away any time soon for the Mustangs or their coach, Neal Perlmutter.
“It still stings,” Perlmutter admitted Saturday afternoon. “I give Mater Dei credit. They fought hard and pulled it out. We didn’t give it to them. They took it.”
But for the longest time in the game, it looked like the best season in Mira Costa basketball history was destined to culminate in a CIF championship game appearance next week.
When the Costa team got on the bus Friday afternoon to travel south for their showdown with California’s biggest athletic powerhouse, they were as dialed in as any group of teenagers Perlmutter has ever seen.
“The guys were focused and ready to go,” Perlmutter said. “We all had a good feeling about this game.”
As the bus navigated the always-heavy Friday afternoon traffic on the 405, he laid out the hard reality they were facing.
“I told the guys that the only way to win a CIF championship is to beat some great teams,” he said. “There is no back door.”
The 27-2 Mustangs had already beaten two very good teams in Brentwood and Damien in the first two rounds of the playoffs at home. They had even neutralized Damien’s 6-foot-11 center Nate Garcia, who had been averaging 20 points and 15 rebounds in the playoffs before they shut him down.
But now their time on the home court at the Fisher Athletic Complex was over. Now they would have to go into the Monarchs gym and face a team that had already handed them a 64-54 loss in the Desert Holiday Classic tournament back in December.
The odds were also stacked against them because Costa had been moved up from Division 2A, where they had played the last few years, while Mater Dei had been moved down from the Open Division it has played in for the last 14 years. Indeed, the Monarchs were reportedly the ninth team under consideration for the 8-team Open Division and just missed being selected as the last Open team before landing in the Division 1 bracket.
Once they arrived at Mater Dei – whose athletic facilities compare favorably to many small and mid to major colleges — the Mustangs faced a hostile crowd that fully expected their Monarchs to steamroll the smaller Mustangs.
But as the game began Costa had a game plan that featured star point guard Will Householter — and they executed it beautifully.
“We wanted to put Will in pick-and-roll situations with our three bigs,” Perlmutter said, referring to 6-foot-4 Nick Lundy, and Trey Pearce and Preston Ezewiro, both 6-foot-7.
A pick and roll play involves one of the big guys setting a pick for Householter at the top of the key, with Householter coming around the pick towards the basket with the ball while his teammate rolls straight to the basket and makes himself available for a pass. The play is designed to create confusion among the defenders forced to make choices about who to cover. That confusion allows the offensive players to create an open shot, sometimes a short jump shot and sometimes a drive all the way to the hoop.
“Will did a great job of making decisions on when to pass and when to shoot,” Perlmutter said. “He had 10 points in the first half and a bunch of assists.”
Indeed, everything was working to perfection as Costa raced out to a stunning 32-10 lead that turned out to be their high-water mark of the game.
The Mustangs were all high-fives and broad smiles as they headed for the half time break with a 34-17 lead.
Inside the locker room, Perlmutter warned his players that the game was far from over.
“The guys were still locked in,” Perlmutter said. “We knew they were going to make a run and do everything they could to make a comeback. They had already started to double-team Will late in the first half, so we expected more of that.”
And sure enough the game turned out to be a tale of two halves.
“Mater Dei came out in the third quarter with a lot of energy, trapping Will in the half court before he had a chance to get going downhill,” Perlmutter said.
Mater Dei power forward Brannon Martinsen forced his way inside for a layup to start the third quarter, and Scotty Belnap followed that with a baseline dunk that electrified the crowd.
“That dunk really got the crowd going,” Perlmutter said.
Owen Verna scored on a layup, Belnap drove for an old-fashioned three-point play, and suddenly, just three minutes into the third quarter, Costa’s lead had shrunk to 10 at 36-26.
But the Mustangs kept their composure.
“I felt that we did a decent job of keeping their run at bay,” Perlmutter said. “We were still up by 8 points going into the fourth quarter.”
In addition to the frantic defensive pressure Mater Dei was exerting on the Mustangs, their two biggest and most physical players – Martinsen and 6-foot-9 Zack Davidson – began to wear down the gritty but undersized Mustangs on the boards.
“Their big guys got going, and that in turn helped their guards turn up the defensive pressure,” Perlmutter said. “We had trouble handling their pressure.”
Costa’s senior forward Lundy battled valiantly on the boards, grabbing eight rebounds and finishing with a game-high 26 points, including four three-pointers.
But the massive Mustang lead was steadily shrinking, and the more it evaporated the more the home crowd got over its shock at watching Costa dominate the first half and began to realize that a Mater Dei victory was still within reach.
In the fourth quarter a problem that had plagued the Mustangs all season – shaky free throw shooting – came back to haunt them once again.
“We just couldn’t do enough to sustain the lead,” Perlmutter said. “And we didn’t shoot well from the free throw line.”
Monarch freshman Luke Barnett hit a huge three-pointer early in the fourth quarter to slice Costa’s lead to 49-48 with four minutes left in the game.
Davidson was fouled and hit both free throws to give the Monarchs their first lead at 50-49. Barnett immediately hit another 3-pointer for a 53-49 advantage and now the momentum had totally flipped while the crowd was flipping out over the home team’s miracle comeback.
Mira Costas’s senior sharp-shooter Dylan Black nailed a corner 3-pointer for the Mustangs last gasp as they pulled within 53-52. But Mater Dei scored the next 6 points for a 59-52 lead with 25 seconds to go, and that was the ball game.
In the silent locker room afterwards, Perlmutter laid out the reality of what had just happened.
“I told the guys you have to play four quarters of great basketball to beat a team like that,” he recalled. “And we had only played two great quarters. It wasn’t enough.”
But he also told his players to be proud of what they had accomplished.
“This team changed the course of Mira Costa basketball,” Perlmutter said. “A lot of people have told me this is the best in the history of the school, so this team has a lot to be proud of. They will be remembered for a long time.”
Mater Dei (26-6) will play Etiwanda (25-4) in the Division 1 championship game Feb. 25 at the Honda Center. Etiwanda defeated Canyon 67-57 in Friday’s other Division 1 semifinal.
Martinsen scored a team-high 17 points for the Monarchs, and Davidson added 15 points with six rebounds. Barnett chipped in with 11 points on three 3-pointers.
Lundy led the Mustangs with 26 points while Householter added 14 points and a dozen assists.
While the stunning loss was painful for the Mustangs, Perlmutter was quick to point out that their season is not over. Like all CIF-SS semifinalists, the Mustangs (now 27-3) qualified for the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs that begin Feb. 28.
“We’ll play a week from Tuesday,” Perlmutter said. “We don’t know who- or where yet, but there’s a 90 percent chance it will be an away game. We’ll probably be a lower seed and the lower seed always has to travel in those games.”
The Mustangs are now one for two in terms of reaching their pre-season goals: winning the Bay League and then winning CIF. But Perlmutter said that winning a state title would take much of the sting out of this loss.
“I told the guys when I first came to Mira Costa that our goal was to win CIF within three years and to win a state title within five years,” Perlmutter said. “Now we have a chance to play for a state title. We’ve played neck and neck with Mater Dei two times this season already, so we should be able to play with anybody.”
Redondo Union junior center Ella Zimmerman led the Sea Hawks to a come from behind, overtime victory over San Clemente in the Division 2AA quarterfinals last Wednesday. But on Saturday the Sea Hawks were eliminated during an at home game by top seeded LaSalle. Photos by Ray Vidal
Redondo Girls Stage a Comeback for the Ages
Speaking of miracle comebacks, the Redondo girls basketball team pulled off one of their own Wednesday night in a Division 2AA quarterfinal game against San Clemente.
Down by 14 points in the fourth quarter, the Sea Hawk girls stormed back behind the inspiring play of the great Ella Zimmerman, their 6-foot-4 junior center, to win the game in overtime. Redondo outscored the Tritons 20-8 in overtime to win the game by a score of 66-54.
Zimmerman had 15 points, 18 rebounds, four blocks, two assists and two steals. And she hit the dramatic, buzzer beating hoop that sent the game to overtime.
But she didn’t do it alone. Bri Boyd led the Sea Hawks with 26 points while Chloe Choy had 16 points, six rebounds and two assists.
Unfortunately, the Sea Hawks could not extend their season beyond that. They lost at home to top-seeded La Salle 46-36 in the semifinals Saturday night.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER