All Ball Sports: Mustang girls flip the script, Sea Hawk boys dominate Mustang boys
by Paul Teetor
It was a game of runs – and in the end Redondo ran right over Mira Costa.
It started out as exactly the kind of jam-packed Friday night hoops happening that Mira Costa basketball fans envisioned when they approved spending $38 million on a new athletic complex a few years ago and hiring a young, dynamic coach who had turned around the West program in just a couple of years.
The gym was standing room only, the noise level was through the roof, the cheer leaders were dancing up a storm, old acquaintances were being renewed, and their archrival Redondo was in the house to provide the opposition for a Mustang team with a 19-1 record, a team that had set a record for the best start in school history.
With the two teams tied for first place in the Bay League and the league title likely on the line, all the elements were in place for an instant classic.
Then the game began and all the excitement and anticipation quickly faded away on the Costa side of the gym.
Redondo used a steal and a break-away slam to jump out to a 5-0 lead that set the tone for the rest of the game: Redondo was just too quick, too athletic and too skilled for Costa to handle.
Defensively, the Sea Hawks were pressing from the moment Mira Costa inbounded the ball, pressuring Costa point guard Christian Kranz with two men every step of the way and forcing him into several bad passes and forced turnovers.
After Costa Coach Neal Perlmutter called a quick timeout, 6-foot-8 center Luke Hammerschmidt finally got the Mustangs on the scoreboard with a stick-back that made the score 5-2. Costa caught up at 7-7, but the Sea Hawks had pulled ahead 12-9 by the end of the first quarter.
Then it got ugly for the Mustangs.
Brayden Miner, the son of former USC star and NBA dunk contest champion Harold Miner, hit a couple of three-pointers as Redondo’s lead ballooned to 20-11.
But Costa’s two best players, senior forwards Eneasi “E” Piuleini and Jacob De Armas, refused to let their team fold. E had a soaring dunk and De Armas fought hard on the boards to prevent the taller, quicker Redondo team from totally dominating the rebounding battles.
But after they dragged the Mustangs back to within 22-15, Redondo went on a 7-point run and grew its lead to 29-15 – a 14-point bulge.
Then the momentum switched yet again and Costa used a De Armas dunk and foul shot to close within 31-27 at halftime. The home crowd’s optimism was revived — at least momentarily — and hope flared anew that the game would turn into a classic that would be remembered for a long time.
But after halftime, Redondo bounced back and showed why they came into the game with an 18-2 record while playing a schedule that was significantly tougher than Costa’s.
Led by Miner, who finished with 18 points, Hudson Mayes, who had 15 points, and Chris Sanders, who also scored 15 points, the Sea Hawks ended the third quarter with a 56-33 lead and some of the sold-out crowd started leaving.
Costa made it interesting by scoring the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to pull within 56-44, and later closed to within 5 points. But they could get no closer and the final score ended up 76-64.
After the game both coaches complimented the losing team.
“You can’t expect a good team like Mira Costa to just go away,” said Redondo coach Reggie Morris, whose team improved to 19-2 overall and 4-0 in league. “We knew they were going to make a run too.”
Perlmutter cited his team’s fighting spirit when the game was seemingly out of reach in the second quarter and again in the fourth.
“I was proud of my team for not giving up,” Perlmutter said. “We made a decision that we were going to keep fighting. We started to get some turnovers, created some looks, we had our chances. I think we had the ball down five or six, but we couldn’t get our 3-ball to fall tonight. I’m proud of the way the guys battled.”
The Mustangs hit just three 3-pointers in the game. On the other end, the Sea Hawks hit 10, with Miner hitting four and Devin Wright hitting three.
Morris, who is campaigning for a spot in the Open Division playoffs, was not happy with his team’s performance.
“We still have a lot of improving to do,” Morris said. “Our turnovers were bad, our focus laxed sometimes, we get happy when we start beating people and we let the rope go, we have to keep hold of the rope and be more consistent with our focus.”
Eneasi Piuleini led Mira Costa with 22 points and DeArmas had 15. The Mustangs are now 19-2 on the season and 3-1 in the Bay League. They resume Bay League play Tuesday on the road against Wiseburn Da Vinci. Redondo visits Peninsula that same night.
The teams will meet again Feb. 4 at Redondo to conclude the regular season.
Now back for his second stint as coach at Redondo, Morris said he has a big goal this season — make the Open Division playoffs.
“That’s where we want to be,” he said.
Friday night’s convincing win over another elite team should get the Sea Hawks into the Open Division when the CIF seedings are announced next month.

Mira Costa guard Kylee Yeh finished with 16 points along with five rebounds and four steals to lead the Mira Costa girls first victory against Redondo for the first time in seven years.
Mira Costa girls beat Redondo for first time since 2017
It’s been eight long years since the Mira Costa girls basketball team beat Redondo but they finally brought the high-flying Sea Hawks down to earth Friday night.
The Mustangs had lost four of their last five games and their second-leading scorer, Ella Nickerson, suffered a major knee injury earlier in the week.
But on this night the Mustangs played with energy and spirit, as superstar guard Kylee Yeh and sharp-shooter Kristyn Kim combined for 30 points while Mira Costa’s defense locked down Redondo’s scorers for a 46-33 victory.
It was Mira Costa’s first victory over Redondo since Feb. 9, 2017.
“This win means a lot,” Yeh said. “We know there’s a lot of tension and we knew Redondo would come out with a lot of energy. We were going to leave it all out on the floor because we had nothing to lose since we’ve been on that losing streak.”
The Mustangs improved to 13-8 overall and 3-1 in league.
Yeh, only a sophomore but a star from the moment she stepped on the court for her first varsity game in the fall of 2023, began the game on a tear.
After being moved from point guard to shooting guard prior to the game, the sophomore scored 12 of the first 17 points for Mira Costa, which held a 17-6 lead at the end of the opening quarter. Her handle, her agility and her shot-making were too much for Redondo to deal with.
Yeh finished with 16 points along with five rebounds and four steals.
Redondo senior forward Abby Zimmerman totaled nine points in the opening half and finished with 14 points.
“I thought we got outworked in every aspect,” Redondo coach Marcelo Enriquez said. “Defensively, Mira Costa was more aggressive and a lot quicker. They were cutting us off at every spot, blitzing our ball handlers and dribble penetration and caused a lot of turnovers. They came out with a fire right from the get-go that we didn’t have, and that was disappointing.”
Kim hit a pair of 3-pointers to close out the opening half, helping Mira Costa take a 27-14 advantage.
“We wanted to bring the energy from the start and show them we’re not scared of anything or anyone,” Kim said. “We wanted lots of ball movement to get everyone shots.”
Kim scored eight of her 14 points in the third quarter, including a 3-pointer at the 6:054 mark that helped the Mustangs open up a 15-point lead.
“When Kim’s on fire, there’s no one better,” Mira Costa coach Jeff Herdman said. “Her goal is to shoot 10 3-pointers a night. Whether she makes seven in a row or misses, we want her to just keep shooting.”
The Mustangs’ Adrianna Martinez added six points in the fourth quarter and finished with four steals. Kenia Bohman had five points in the opening quarter.
The two arch rivals will meet again in the last game of the regular season on February 4 at Redondo.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com