by Paul Teetor
The Mira Costa boys basketball team continued its relentless march towards the school’s first CIF Division 1 title with a gritty 59-48 win over Windward at home Tuesday night.
The Mustangs raced out to a 10-0 lead, saw it cut in half by halftime, and then finished with an 11-point victory on their way to a semifinal game at home Saturday night.
The Mustangs, now 28-3 on the season, were still riding the adrenaline wave created by their thrilling, one-point win over archrival Redondo in the final game of the regular season two weeks ago.
The 69-68 victory over Redondo not only gave them a share of the Bay League title – both Costa and Redondo finished with 7-1 league records — but it proved something very important to their self-confidence as a group.
“It confirmed our ability to beat any team in Southern California,” Mira Costa Coach Neal Perlmutter said. “Before that game, our three losses had been to highly ranked teams – Anaheim Canyon, De La Salle, and Redondo. It was a great win, especially because no one expected us to win.”
Perlmutter said this team is the best team he has ever coached, with seven starting-level players.
“Top to bottom, this team has more depth, more scoring, and with our full-court press the ability to dominate other teams,” he said.
All those factors came into play Tuesday night. The Mustangs used their relentless press to force more turnovers than a vegan bakery and simply wore down a very good Windward team with waves of defenders coming in for short stints. Any Windward player who held the ball for more than two seconds found himself surrounded by two or even three defenders with flailing arms coming at them from everywhere.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.
“It’s the time of the year where you either put up or you get eliminated,” Perlmutter said. “That’s the luxury of having eight seniors and guys who have been there. The core group made it all the way to the Division 1 semifinals two years ago, we had a good road playoff game last year, and now we’ve played against Open Division teams. So we’re experienced and they went out and made plays and that’s what it takes.”
The Mustang’s best player, smooth senior forward Eneasi Piuleini, led Mira Costa with 16 points. Slick point guard Christian Kranz and dominant center Luke Hammerschmidt had 12 apiece, and jumping jack forward Jacob DeArmas chipped in with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Mira Costa, who lost that semifinal appearance two years ago on the road against Mater Dei, will be home Saturday night against Santa Barbara, who defeated Mater Dei 75-70 in overtime Tuesday night.
“Two years ago, we were up 20 at the half against Mater Dei in the semifinals and lost. We wanted the rematch with Mater Dei, but now we get to do it against Santa Barbara and avenge what we could have done two years ago,” Kranz said. “We’re excited, we’re ready, it’s at home, we’re going to have a lot of fans, we’ll have a crazy crowd …it should be really fun.”
JuJu The Great
The overflow crowd packed into USC’s Galen Center Thursday night was expecting a great game between top-ranked UCLA and sixth ranked USC.
Instead, they got to see something even better: arguably the greatest game ever played by a college female hooper.
Since All Ball has not watched every single women’s game of the last 40 years, it’s possible that someone special – like Diana Taurasi, Caitlin Clark, Ann Myers or Lisa Leslie – might have played a better game than JuJu Watkins, USC’s superstar sophomore guard.
Possible, but not very likely.
The 6-foot-2 Watkins, who was supposedly in a slump heading into the game – and it was considered a slump only because Trojan fans expect her to play a great game every single game — broke out of her “slump” with an incredible stat line that only hinted at how completely she dominated the Bruins, who came into the game undefeated and ranked number one in the county behind their star center, 6-foot-8 Lauren Betts.
Watkins, who grew up in LA, became an instant high school legend first at the Windward School and then at Sierra Canyon High School before graduating in 2023. Now, two years later, in this game she played in front of dozens of friends and family. She played with such joy and energy that it poured out of her, from the opening tip-off all the way to the last seconds of a resounding 71-60 drubbing of a confused and overwhelmed UCLA.
The infectious joy she played with flowed off her fingertips for pull-up 3-pointers and shimmy-shake midrange shots as well as block parties in the paint. She walked toward the courtside seats as the horn sounded after her 38-point, 11-rebound, eight-block masterpiece to thunderous applause from an awe-struck crowd.
Standing courtside was her sister Mali Nicole, a talented singer who had belted out the national anthem a few hours earlier. Mother Sari and father Bobby were there, too, standing and waving. Actor Kevin Hart stood alongside them, enraptured in a brown sweatsuit. It was a fitting mix, the family that grounds her within Los Angeles and the celebrity factor that could propel her way beyond LA as she is being hailed as the next Caitlin Clark, a breakout star who transcends basketball.
And that celebrity bowed to her on Thursday night. Literally, as Hart held his hands out in mock-reverence after the final buzzer.
Hart was far from the only celebrity there to witness Watkins at her very best.
Also there were Vanessa Bryant and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea (in a yellow T-shirt depicting Watkins’ “SLAM” magazine cover). Also there were Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (a lock for NFL Rookie of the Year), and Sparks stars Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby, as well as a whole contingent of former USC greats, led by Cheryl Miller. Actors Issa Rae and Sanaa Lathan, who starred as Monica in “Love and Basketball,” were also there.
“It was an amazing crowd,” Watkins said. “And when you have people like that show up, you can’t disappoint, you know?”
She explained how the joyous feeling translated into a hoops masterpiece.
“I’m really just like a kid out there,” Watkins said. “I’m living out my dreams, for real.”
By the waning minutes of the fourth quarter USC had withstood a third-quarter UCLA punch and smacked right back. A special sort of energy whipped through the arena as Watkins made a play that defined the whole dynamic of the game and made every highlight reel in the country.
With the top-ranked Bruins down seven and looking to make a move, their star center Betts caught the ball in the paint, turned over her right shoulder, and lofted a tough fadeaway hook shot over a USC player. It was headed straight for the hoop and looked like the start of a final push for the Bruins.
But from the perimeter, seemingly out of nowhere, Watkins lunged over and swatted Betts’ shot, got the rebound herself, and pushed the ball 90 feet the other way, looking like she was going to take it coast-to-coast and score. But just before she got to the foul line, she threw a blind pass to Kiki Iriafen for a hoop and a foul shot that effectively ended the game and gave the Trojans bragging rights in the cross-town rivalry.
Until March 1, that is. That’s when the two blood rivals will meet again – this time in the Bruins lair known as Pauley Pavilion. That game, if possible, may be even better than this one.
LA has two great women’s college basketball teams. USC now has a 22-2 record and UCLA now has a 23-1 record.
But there is only one transcendent player, and she just played the greatest game of her life.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
