All Ball Sports: Mustang boys, girls basketball combine for 15-1 start, Chargers back in the hunt
Trey Pearce came off the bench to keep Rolling Hills Prep in check during the first half of the Pacific Shores Tournament finals. Photo by Ray Vidal
by Paul Teetor
Combined, the Mira Costa boys and girls basketball teams are 15-1. But that single loss was a real buzz-kill. A dream birthday party was all set up for boys Coach Neal Perlmutter on Saturday night: his team was undefeated at 9-0, it was in the finals of its own Pacific Shores Tournament, and Perlmutter was going to be celebrating his 41st birthday Sunday afternoon.
All he needed for the perfect present was for his gutty, undersized team to upset Rolling Hills Prep, ranked eighth in the LA Times Top 25 Prep Teams, in front of a packed house at a roaring Fischer Gymnasium on the Costa campus.
Mission almost accomplished. He had to settle for second place in the 8-team field as a consolation present.
But it wasn’t for lack of trying.
The Mustangs hung tough and traded basket-for-basket throughout the roller-coaster first half, going into the locker room at halftime trailing by only 29-26. A big win over the best team – and the best player in dynamic point guard Benny Gealer – that they had faced all year loomed as a realistic possibility.
But mid-way through the third quarter the Huskies ripped off a 9-3 run that opened the gap to 9 at 42-33. At that point Costa let go of the string and started taking some wild shots, with several guys playing hero ball. The end result was a 60-48 win for RH Prep, which didn’t reflect just how competitive this game was, especially in the first half.
“I really hoped the kids were going to give me a great birthday present,” Perlmutter said. “But they played as hard as they could and that’s all I can ask of them.”
Costa point guard Will Householter, who is destined to once again lead the Bay League in floor burns thanks to his physical, all-in style of play, finally looked like the all-league player he was the last two years before having to sit out for 10 days just prior to this season because of a non-Covid illness.
“It was good to see Will get his rhythm, and timing back,” Perlmutter said. “He played his best game of the season.”
Householter had been slowly working his way back as Costa won its first nine games, content to handle the ball while setting up his teammates for their favorite shots, and playing suffocating defense on the other team’s best perimeter player.
But Saturday night the crafty 6-foot-2 lefty came out firing to give the Mustangs a quick 10-7 lead over the heavily favored Huskies. In the first minute he grabbed a rebound, went up in heavy traffic, and somehow found a way to spin it into the hoop. Next time down he drove hard for a get-out-of-my-way layup for a 4-0 lead.
He hit on another power drive and then pulled up for a long 3-pointer. Combined with a single foul shot by fellow junior guard Dylan Black, the Mustangs now had their biggest lead of the game at 10-7. The Huskies fought back behind Gealer and 6-foot-8 board beast Kenny Manzi to tie the score 12-12 at the end of the first quarter.
The home crowd was loving it, hopeful they were watching an upset in the making. Meanwhile the much smaller visiting contingent was feeling a little nervous that its undefeated Huskies (7-0) were in danger of losing their first game of the still-young season.
That’s when the 6-foot-2 Gealer, who up to that point had been content to let Manzi and 6-foot-6 Seydi Thiombane carry the scoring load by controlling the boards, showed everyone why he was offered – and has accepted — a full scholarship to play for Stanford in the PAC-12 next season.
He immediately hit a 12-foot baseline jumper to take a 14-12 lead, but that was answered by a three-pointer from another Costa junior, 6-foot-3 Nick Lundy, the surprise player of the year so far for the Mustangs.
“I don’t think anybody before the season expected that Nick would be having 20-point games,” Perlmutter said. “His improvement has been lights out.”
Gealer raced down-court and pulled up from 2 feet in back of the 3-point line and swished a deep 3-pointer that drew oohs and aahs from the crowd – on both sides of the gym.
“When he started hitting Kobe-like shots I knew we were going to have a tough night,” Perlmutter said. “You can see why he was named Tournament MVP.”
The Huskies lead grew to 19-15 until Householter connected on a trifecta to pull within 19-18. The pace of the game caught fire now as Manzi hit a stick-back, Householter lofted yet another 3-pointer and Lundy spotted up in the right corner for a 3-pointer of his own that matched Costa’s biggest lead at 24-21.
After famed RHP coach Harvey Kitani called a time out and rallied his team, Gealer quickly swished another pull-up 3 to tie the game at 24-24. Mira Costa junior Trey Pearce, a 6-foot-6 red-headed bomber, came off the bench to nail a 10-foot jumper from the left side that tied it at 26-all. And a few seconds before the halftime buzzer Gealer did it yet again, racing past half-court and pulling up for a long 3-pointer – his fourth of the half — that gave the Huskies their 29-26 lead heading into the locker room. Householter was almost as hot, piling up 15 of the Mustangs total of 26 points.
The second quarter had been so fast and furious that the crowd seemed a bit dazed as they staggered out of their seats to catch their breath, and debate just how good Gealer will be at Stanford next year in the highly competitive PAC-12.
“I think he’ll do great at Stanford,” Perlmutter said. “He’s athletic, he’s smart, he’s efficient, and he has a lot of moves to get open. Plus he never comes out of the game and he never seems to get tired.”
Costa’s game plan was to contain Gealer, and force him into bad shots, but a rotating cast of defenders – led by Householter and Black in the first half and Jesse Waller in the second half – never could get him completely under control.
“Will and Dylan took turns on him in the first half,” Perlmutter said. “And then we tried to get some length on him in the second half.”
After nailing four treys in the first half, Gealer was double and triple teamed whenever he got the ball.
“Our goal was to deny him the ball and wear him down,” Perlmutter said.
But Gealer showed another aspect of his game with several nifty passes to teammates – usually Manzi and Thiombane – who worked their way free under the basket while their defenders were helping out on Gealer.
“He was able to burn us by finding the open guy,” Perlmutter said. “He’s not just a shooter.”
Gealer finished with 20 points – the third time he reached at least 20 points in his four tournament games — and was named the Pac Shores MVP. He was backed up by Thiombane with 16 points and Manzi with 15 points.
For the Mustangs, Householter finished with a team-high 19 points. Lundy, who matched Gealer with four 3-pointers of his own, tallied 14 points and was named to the All-Tournament Team in recognition of his solid inside-outside play all week. Earlier in the week the Mustangs beat West Torrance 51-50 when Householter connected on a driving floater to beat the buzzer, crushed Carson 86-40, and had a nice 59-52 win over a tough Brentwood squad in a game that wasn’t decided until the last minute.
While Perlmutter didn’t get the birthday present he wanted, he has given the Costa hoops community a present of its own: a viable, high-end basketball program that shows every sign of improving year by year as talented players develop their skills under his leadership.
When he came in from West Torrance four years ago, the program was dispirited and going nowhere while archrival Redondo had won seven straight Bay League titles. Perlmutter shocked the world by beating Redondo and winning the Bay League in his second year, but his young team lost a bunch of seniors and took a step back during the Covid-shortened season last spring.
At the same time the Costa Junior Varsity under Coach Ray Barnes was going almost undefeated, losing only to Loyola. Several of those players, including Trey Pearce and sophomore James Reach, are now important role players for the varsity. Perlmutter noted that the junior varsity is undefeated this year. “They even beat Loyola this year, just like the varsity did,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time we beat them on both levels.”
Winslow Smith’s and Hannah Gedion’s control of the boards helped the Mustangs go 6-0 to win the Valley Christian Tournament last week in Cerritos. (Easy Reader file photos by Ray Vidal)
Meanwhile, the Mira Costa girls team is undefeated at 6-0 and will host its own tournament this week after winning the Valley Christian Tournament last week in Cerritos.
The Lady Mustangs posted five tournament wins thanks to their great depth up and down the roster. They beat Valley View 52-42 in the finals Saturday night.
“We’re playing eight to nine players every game,” Coach John Lapham said. “We have so many good players that I feel lucky to have them all.”
Lapham, who already had two all-league guards in Cara Susilo and Maile Nakaji, has another great guard in sophomore Hayden Lin, who stepped in when Susilo got injured.
“She shot incredibly well, was our leading scorer in the tournament, and also handles the ball very well,” Lapham said. “She’s really improved from her freshman year.”
The Mustangs are also deep up front, with sleek 6-footer Winslow Smith and rebound monster Hannah Gedion controlling the boards and throwing outlet passes to start fast breaks.
In the championship game they were able to beat undefeated Valley View (9-0) by controlling their star, who had been averaging 36 points coming into the game.
Bay League play starts for the girls on January 4, and an early test looms on January 7 when the Mustangs host Peninsula, and their all-everything star Jaydn Lee.
“The Bay League will be incredibly competitive this year,” Lapham said. “Peninsula, Redondo and Santa Monica will all be tough. We just hope we can hang with them.”
Chargers back in playoff hunt
The Chargers second-year quarterback Justin Herbert is more than the best young quarterback in all of pro football. The 6-foot-6, 240-pound former Oregon star is a complete football player who can do it all.
While leading the Chargers to a 41-22 must-have win over the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday afternoon at Cincinnati, Herbert passed for three touchdowns and connected on 26 of 35 passes for 317 yards. He also made an open field tackle that prevented a touchdown and caught a pass for a two-point conversion.
Oh, and he’s now the Chargers second leading rusher for the season with more than 250 yards on the ground.
But it was the pass he caught for two points that will be the lasting image of this game, so let’s take a closer look at it.
When the Philadelphia Eagles used a similar play a few years ago to win the Super Bowl, it was instantly dubbed the Philly Special and Eagles quarterback Nick Foles joined the long list of Super Bowl heroes immortalized on a video loop destined to be replayed over and over.
Call this play the LA Special. It didn’t happen in the Super Bowl, but it was still a crucial play in a very important game. And if the Chargers do somehow make it to the Super Bowl scheduled to be played in SoFi Stadium two months from now, this will be remembered as one of the key plays that set them on the road to the championship game.
It happened early in the second quarter when Herbert escaped the pass rush, rolled to his right, stopped and launched a long-range guided missile that hit a leaping Jaylen Guyton square in the hands for a 44-yard touchdown that gave the Chargers a 22-0 lead.
But the Chargers have had trouble all year kicking extra points – they’re already on their third kicker — so this time Coach Brandon Staley had his team line up for a two-point conversion.
The Bengals defense braced for one of three likely options: a quarterback sneak by Herbert, an off-tackle run by halfback Austin Ekeler or a short pass from Herbert to one of his two great wide receivers, Keenan Allen or Mike Williams, or his 6-foot-8 tight end Donald Parham.
But Staley had a trick play that they had been practicing all year ready to go. Why he chose this moment to unveil it is unclear, but it worked just like it was designed to.
The ball was hiked to Herbert, who handed it off to Ekeler, so at first it looked like it would be a simple off-tackle plunge. As Ekeler started to his left, he flipped the ball to Allen, who was crossing behind him left to right. Now it looked like an end-around play, and Allen has the speed to turn the corner and get into the end zone.
But as Bengal defenders converged on Allen, he pulled up and lofted a shaky, wounded-duck pass towards Herbert, who had strolled into the end zone while all the razzle-dazzle was going on. It wasn’t a great pass, but Herbert was so alone he had plenty of time to grab it before he could be hit.
Herbert leaped in the air and spiked the ball into the ground so hard it threw up dirt divots. He’s used to throwing passes for scores, not catching them. He was entitled to celebrate a bit now that the Chargers had a 24-0 lead and a hammer lock on the game.
Besides, compared to the some of the elaborately choreographed celebrations unveiled after TDs in recent years – machine gun sprays, group selfies, even a dog lifting his hind leg and urinating on the ground (that one drew a massive fine from the league office) — this was as old-school as you can get.
Oops. Rather than clinching the victory, that was the exact moment when, against all odds, the game seemed to turn in the Bengals favor. Spanning the end of the second quarter and all of the third quarter, the Bengals bounced back with three touchdowns and a field goal. Quarterback Joe Burrow, who was drafted first overall last year, five spots before Herbert, came alive as he ran six yards for a touchdown, threw a 29-yard pass for a touchdown, and handed off to beast mode running back Joe Mixon for a 7-yard TD run.
During that extended Bengal burst, Herbert saved a TD when Ekeler fumbled the ball, had it picked up by Bengals safety Jessie Bates, and watched helplessly as Bates made a bee-line down the left sideline headed straight for the end zone. Out of nowhere Herbert came charging over and launched himself and his 240 pounds in front of Bates, who by this time was in an all-out sprint.
Herbert delivered a massive hit that knocked Bates out of bounds. Every Charger fan watching on TV held their breath and waited to see if Herbert would get up off the ground. He did, of course, and his hustle play proved critical when the Bengals were forced to kick a field goal for three points instead of the seven they would have gotten with a TD.
In his post-game press conference Herbie admitted it was a risky play but said he just reacted on instinct. “You don’t really have a choice other than to go tackle him,” he said. “You don’t want to be put in that situation. But I’m glad that we got the stop there.
And just like that the Chargers lead was cut to 24-22, all the momentum had shifted in favor of the Bengals, and the Chargers looked like their season record was going to level off at 6-6 while the Bengals would move to 8-4 and burst ahead of them in the hunt for a wild card spot in the AFC playoffs.
That’s when the back-and-forth game took another crazy turn. This time it was a Bengal fumble by Mixon that bounced right into the hands of defensive back Tevaughn Campbell. He sprinted 61 yards to the end zone, the Chargers lead grew to 31-22, and suddenly the body language flip-flopped yet again. Now the Chargers were the aggressors, smelling a victory just over the horizon, while the Bengals lost the physical edge that had propelled their comeback from 24 points down.
Next time the Chargers got the ball, Ekeler made up for his two fumbles on the day by running for a short TD, and the Chargers tacked on a field goal for good measure.
One stat worth noting: This was the 11th game that Herbie has thrown at least three TD passes. Only the great Dan Marino of the 1980s-90s Miami Dolphins threw more (13) in his first two seasons. And Herbie, who holds virtually all the rookie quarterback passing records, has five more games to try to break Marino’s record.
The win was critical because the Chargers had lost two out of their last three games and fallen off from their 4-1 start to the point that they were in danger of dropping out of playoff contention.
Now, if the playoffs were held today, they would make it as an AFC wild-card team ahead of the Bengals, even though they both have 7-5 records, because they beat them head-to-head.
Next week the Chargers host the sad-sack New York Giants in a game they figure to win handily. But after that they face the Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders. If they can win three of those five games they should make the playoffs.
Once again, it’s all up to Herbie to haul his team to the promised land. He’ll do whatever it takes.
A get well game for the Rams
Watching the Rams crush the Jaguars Sunday afternoon was like watching a friend who had crashed his $5,000 carbon e-bike, hurt himself badly, and was now trying to ride a rickety old Strand cruiser at a low speed.
The idea was for him to get that old feeling back, to get that cruising groove back by going through the old familiar motions until he started feeling good about himself like before the crash.
And by the end of the 37-7 beatdown the Rams put on the Jaguars they were indeed feeling good about themselves. They dominated the Jaguars on both sides of the ball, scored at will, and shut down Trevor Lawrence, the 6-foot-6 long-haired quarterback with the cannon arm who was the first overall pick in the NFL draft last spring.
There were plenty of high fives all around, and lots of smiles from everyone, from Coach Sean McVay to quarterback Matthew Stafford, all the way down to the lowliest waterboy.
But all that hilarity and celebrating didn’t answer the key questions hanging over this puzzling team: Did this massive win mean more than just that their 3-game losing streak was over? Did it mean their long-gone mojo was coming back after a winless November? From now on, will this be the Rams team that opened the season with a 7-1 burst, or the Rams team that lost their last three games and looked overmatched against Tennessee, San Francisco and Green Bay?
And the biggest question of all: does this win mean that quarterback Matthew Stafford has awoken from the nightmare in which he closely resembled the now-departed Jared Goff while throwing a pick-six in each of the three consecutive losses?
Stafford actually started this game slowly before heating up in the second half and ending up with respectable numbers: 26 of 38 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns. The Rams are now 8-4, and well positioned to grab a wild-card playoff spot. Not what they expected or hoped for 3 months ago, but they would take it in a heartbeat on the road to the SoFi Super Bowl.
But you have to put the Rams performance in perspective: Jacksonville is the second worst team in the league, coming into the game with a 2-9 record that is now 2-10. The only team with a worse record is Detroit, which won its first game Sunday when Goff threw a game-winning TD on the last play of the game.
So unless you’re a die-hard Rams fan – the kind who goes around mumbling whose House? Rams House! under his breath – this game didn’t really answer any of the important questions. It just stopped the bleeding and put the Rams squarely in the hunt for a wild-card playoff spot.
As far as those pesky questions: They’ll be answered in the next five weeks as the Rams play Arizona, Seattle, Minnesota, Baltimore and San Francisco. There isn’t a cupcake in the bunch, and this Rams team has been so schizophrenic it’s possible they could go 5-0 or 0-5 and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise either way.
Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER