All Ball Sports:  Rams ‘run it back’ fumble; Mustang hoopsters sunk          

Shooting guard Maile Nakaji will return next year to lead the Mira Costa Mustangs. Photo by Ray Vidal

Mira Costa point guard Will Householter is expected to earn Bay League Most Outstanding Player honors. Photo by Ray Vidal   

by Paul Teetor

If the Rams had played the Bengals in the Super Bowl the way they have played the media game in the Super Bowl aftermath, they would have lost the big game by at least two touchdowns.

The first few hours after the stirring, story-book 23-20 win over the Bengals at SoFi Stadium was a true love fest between the players and the city. Owner Stan Kroenke’s mission – besides the old-rich-guy satisfaction of presiding over all the hoopla and buzz during the two-week runup to the game – was to grow the Rams fan base.

Mission accomplished – at first.

It was no secret that home playoff games against Arizona and especially San Francisco had featured at least as many Cardinals and 49er’s jerseys in the stands as they did Rams jerseys.

In a way, it was understandable. 

Remember, in 1995 the Rams left LA for St. Louis for 20 years. The feelings of resentment and abandonment by loyal fans here didn’t just go away overnight – or in some cases, in the six years they’ve been back in town. You have to woo those alienated fans back, and what better way than to spend $5.5 billion to build the world’s greatest football stadium and then spend plenty more to build a team good enough to win a Super Bowl in its own house.

Whose House?

Rams House!!

So Sunday night into Monday morning was a non-stop party for the Rams and their growing legion of local fans, and not a discouraging word was heard.

But then the media started asking Coach Sean McVay and defensive star Aaron Donald if they planned to come back next year, and try to win another Super Bowl. Such questions are obligatory journalism 101 questions that have to be asked the same way murderers just convicted by a jury are asked “Did you do it?” as they are escorted out of the courtroom.

The obligatory answers are just as mindless. The convicted killer says “No, I’m innocent and I look forward to proving it on appeal.” The coach and/or star athlete says, “Yes, I’m excited to run it back next season,” and the media moves on to another topic.

Only it didn’t work that way with the Rams. McVay, normally so savvy with handling the media mob, said simply “Let’s see.”

Uh oh.

Within hours, local and national media were filled with stories that McVay might be ready to go out on top. Sports talk radio and TV, which has a 24-hour hole to fill seven days a week, went crazy.

The first wave of speculation had the 36-year-old McVay leaving his $8.5 million a year coaching job for a $10 million a year job as a color analyst on football games, possibly even Monday Night Football. Somehow it all seemed logical: the late, great John Madden had left coaching while still a young man after winning a Super Bowl, and became the greatest color analyst in the history of pro football. He recently passed on to that great gridiron in the sky, so Boom, Pow and Bam: McVay was his logical successor.

Meanwhile Donald, who has three years left on his contract at more than $20 million a year, said he would consider coming back if the Rams brought back his two free agent buddies, linebacker Von Miller and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

By the time Wednesday’s parade rolled around McVay – prepped by the flacks in the Rams PR department — knew he had to say something to stop all the wild speculation.

In front of a wildly cheering crowd, he grabbed the microphone and in his best hung-over-but-sincere voice, began chanting “Run it back, run it back, run it back…” until the crowd picked up on it and joined in.

Problem solved.

Of course, even before the parade got underway there was a small problem to be disposed of: LeBron James, still upset that there wasn’t a parade to celebrate the Lakers 2020 NBA title thanks to Covid restrictions, put out a tweet suggesting that the Lakers be allowed to join the Rams parade and get some delayed love.

“We, Dodgers and Rams should all do a joint parade together!!! With a live concert afterwards to end it!!

Now, All Ball has always said LeBron is the second greatest baller of all time, behind only the incomparable Michael Jordan. But off the court, he’s just another LA wannabe who should stay in his lane. 

Space Jam 2 was a complete dog both financially and creatively, and the Lakers team he forced General Manager Rob Pelinka to assemble this year is a sad joke. And his insistence two years ago that Pelinka trade away all the Lakers hot young prospects – Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart – to get Anthony Davis one year before they could sign him as a free agent without losing any of their young players has turned into a disaster that imperils the Lakers future through the end of this decade.

His suggestion that he, and his mates be allowed to join the Rams parade went nowhere, of course. Indeed, all it accomplished was to alert still-hopeful Lakers fans that not even LeBron – who brokered the trade with Washington that gutted the Lakers and brought in a washed-up, petulant, selfish Russell Westbrook – now thinks they have no chance in hell of winning another NBA title any time soon.

Indeed, you heard it here first: look for LeBron to join the Cleveland Cavaliers for a third stint after next season when his contract expires. The Cavaliers are loaded with talented young players like Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, and with LeBron as the Alpha Dog leading all those kids they would be a legit NBA title contender.

So after surviving the McVay/Donald will-they-or-won’t-they-come-back-next-year fiasco, and the can-I-come-to-your-party LeBron fiasco, the Rams were in the clear, PR-wise, right?

Wrong.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford, who became such a great story by leading his new team to four playoff wins and a Super Bowl title, proceeded to step all over his pristine image.

As the parade was ending, and Stafford was hugging and kissing his gorgeous wife Kelly, they asked photographer Kelly Smiley to take a picture of them together up on the podium where the team had been addressing the gathered fans.

But as the photographer took a couple of steps back to get a better angle for her shot, she took one step too many, tripped and fell over backwards. She fell approximately 8 feet in the air, landed on the hard concrete and fractured her spine.

Stafford gaped at her fall, turned around and walked away while sipping from his water bottle. His wife Kelly at least had a human reaction and rushed to the edge of the podium to check on Smiley’s condition below.

The video of Stafford walking away from the accident seemingly unconcerned while his wife rushed over to check on the victim’s condition soon went viral. Twitter exploded with comments about his unfeeling, cold-hearted reaction. Most of them are unprintable in a family newspaper, but suffice it to say they were not complimentary.

Within hours the Rams tried to clean up the mess by announcing that they were going to pay all the medical expenses for the photographer as well as to pay for her to replace two cameras damaged in the fall.

Luckily, the Rams played the Super Bowl better than they played the Super Bowl celebration.

Whose House? Rams House!!

Mira Costa ballers: Double feature horror show                      

For 24 hours this week, Manhattan Beach became Hoops Heartbreak City.

After falling behind 9-0 to Los Altos of Hacienda Heights Tuesday night in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2AA playoffs, the Mira Costa boys basketball team had clawed all the way back.

Powered by two consecutive 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter by junior sharpshooter Dylan Black, they had tied the score at 51-51, and now had the ball with a chance to win the game with 16 seconds left. Their prospects were bright: they were either going to win the game with the last bucket or miss that shot and send it to overtime. 

The raucous home crowd at Fisher Gym, still buzzing from Black’s pull-up 3 that tied the score 10 seconds earlier, stood and screamed encouragement during the entire timeout as Coach Neal Perlmutter gathered his team around him and diagrammed a play.

Finally the buzzer sounded and the players came out for the most important 16 seconds of the season. The Mustangs successfully inbounded the ball to Will Householter, their crafty point guard, team leader and Most Outstanding Player of the Bay League season, although that honor had not yet been officially announced.

As the clock started ticking down to zero, Householter retreated into the backcourt and then slowly started dribbling his way towards the Mustangs’ basket.

“Our plan was for Will to attack the basket, take his guy to the hole, and either take the shot himself or kick it out to Dylan or one of our other shooters,” Coach Neal Perlmutter said. “We wanted to take the shot with about four or five seconds left so if we missed it we would have a chance at a rebound and another shot. If we miss that shot, then we go to overtime.”

As the clock ticked under 10 seconds and the crowd’s frenzy grew even louder, Householter was met at mid-court by C. J. Bellamy, Los Altos’ cat-quick point guard, and the sidekick to the team’s star, 7-footer Jazz Gardner.

Householter, who led the Bay league in floor burns and clutch plays, is used to players attacking his dribble. As a result, he’s very skilled at fending them off. But this time Bellamy lunged with his right hand, found an opening, and poked the ball away from the lefty Householter.   

As the home crowd watched in horror, the play seemed to unfold in slow motion. Both players lunged for the rolling basketball. Bellamy, with forward momentum on his side, got there first, scooped up the ball and kept going towards his own basket with Householter desperately trying to catch up but a step behind all the way.

The Mira Costa side of Fisher Gym went deathly silent as Bellamy laid the ball in the basket with just 2.5 seconds left. It was a game-changing play and everyone in the gym knew it immediately.

The Los Altos bench erupted in wild cheering and towel-waving. After blowing their big lead and losing control of a game they had led from the opening jump, they had suddenly, most unexpectedly, grabbed it back and now led 53-51.

Costa’s Jesse Waller threw a length-of-the-court pass to try to set up a desperation shot, but the ball landed out of bounds and Los Altos regained possession. The Mustangs immediately fouled Gardner, but he calmly swished two foul shots and the horn sounded on a 55-51 Mustang loss in a game that just a minute earlier had appeared to be within their grasp 

For a Mira Costa team that bases its self-identity on playing great defense every game, it was a cruel, crushing way to lose what would have been one of the great wins in the program’s recent history: on a great defensive play by the other team.

“It was a tough, tough loss,” Perlmutter said. “For the kids, for the fans, and for me.”

He said he told Householter not to blame himself for the loss.

“I told him it wasn’t just one play that caused this loss,” he said. “There were several plays that just didn’t go our way. And I have to give Bellamy credit: he made a great play. It’s not easy to steal the ball from Will. I think he’s the best player in the Bay League.”

Perlmutter said he took comfort from the players resiliency after going down 9-0 to start the game. That’s when he called his first timeout.

“I could see we were nervous to start the game,” he said. “There was a lot of talk coming into the game about how great Jazz Gardner is, as well as Bellamy, who is one of the quickest guards I’ve seen all year. I just told them to start attacking the basket and to make our layups.”

It worked, at least temporarily, as the Mustangs fought all the way back to claim an 18-17 lead when senior power forward Cole Slusser made a nifty steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup.

But Bellamy responded with two three-pointers – including one that banked in to beat the second-quarter buzzer — and Los Altos led 31-22 at halftime.

The highlight of the third quarter came when Householter drove the lane hard and was fouled by Gardner for his fourth foul. The dominant 7-footer was pulled out of the game so he wouldn’t get his fifth and final foul, and it gave the Mustangs some breathing room around the boards. When Waller grabbed an offensive rebound and stuck it back in, the third quarter ended with Los Altos up 42-35.

Black opened the fourth quarter with a corner three that closed the gap to 42-38, and when Householter threw a no-look pass to a cutting Waller for an easy layup the lead was cut to 44-43 and the Costa crowd started stamping their feet and screaming their lungs out.

In the next two minutes both Gardner and Bellamy scored to push the lead back to 51-45. That set the stage for Black’s two consecutive 3-pointers, the first from the far-left corner and the second from the top of the key as he pulled up on a fast break and just let it fly for a clean swish.

On Los Altos next possession the Mustangs surrounded Gardner with three defenders, forcing him into a very difficult 12-foot baseline jumper. Costa got the rebound and called timeout with 16 seconds left to set up a final play to get the win or send it to overtime.

It was a play that went terribly wrong, a play that will haunt them all the way into next season.

Fortunately for them, next season looks very promising, with three of the five starters coming back. Floor general Householter, designated deadeye shooter Black and do-it-all Nick Lundy are all juniors who are expected to start again next year. 

In this game Householter finished with 8 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Black connected on 5 of the 8 3-pointers he shot and finished as the leading scorer in the game with 19 points, while Slusser chipped in with 10 points and some stout defense on Gardner, who towered over him by 6 inches but only had 13 points to back up Bellamy’s 17.

Departing seniors Cole Slusser and Jesse Waller will be hard to replace next season, but there are a bunch of candidates for their two starting spots, including 6-foot-6 forward Trey Pearce and 6-foot-4 guard-forward James Reach, both of whom played well this year off the bench. And 6-foot-6 freshman Preston Ezewiro, who was on the varsity this year, shows great promise for next year and beyond.

Mira Costa JV Coach Ray Barnes guided his team to an unbeaten 27-0 record this year and has a bunch of good players ready to move up to the next level of competition.

“Several of those players will have significant roles on the varsity next year,” Perlmutter said.

This year’s team won the Bay League in the pandemic shortened season, but then came in third in the first-ever league tournament. They also advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Householter made first team All Bay League, and Black and Lundy were named to the second team.

All in all, Perlmutter said, it was a successful season even though they fell short of their goal of winning CIF.       

“The way I judge a season is, did we do everything we could to reach our goals?” he said. “The answer is yes, and we did it with a good group of kids who stuck together, so I think we had a successful season. We beat a number of private school teams we hadn’t beaten in years, like Brentwood and Loyola, and we beat Redondo at home to end the regular season. The worst part of the season is when it came to an end.”

Big girls do cry

Twenty-four hours after that heart-breaking, season-ending loss for the Mustang boys, the Mira Costa girls basketball team suffered an even tougher season-ending, 45-44 loss to Fairmont Prep, of Anaheim, in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. 

Before winning their first-round playoff game, the Mustangs had lost their last two games of the regular season by a combined three points. The Fairmont loss made it three late losses by a combined four points in their last four games.

The way it happened made it that much tougher to digest, according to Coach John Lapham.

The game started with a bad omen: senior all-league guard Cara Susilo went down early in the first half when she took a hard fall on a rebound and hurt her neck and elbow. She sat out the rest of the game, in an abundance of caution.

“It looks like she’ll be fine, but we had to change our lineup just to be safe,” Lapham said.

Despite the loss of their floor general, the Mustangs shot well and grabbed a 7-point halftime lead in front of a large Fairmont crowd that cheered their team’s every score.

“Hayden Lin stepped in for Cara and did a great job,” Lapham said.              

Fairmont charged back to take a 5-point lead in the fourth quarter, only to see the Mustangs fight back to go back up by 3 points with a minute left in the game.

“They scored with 25 seconds left to come within one point of us,” Lapham said. “Then they fouled us and we missed the free throw.”

Still trailing by one point, Fairmont missed a shot with four seconds left, grabbed the offensive rebound and put it back in to beat the buzzer and claim the victory by a single point.

“It was one of the toughest losses we’ve ever had,” Lapham said. “We had a nice little crowd of 50 or 60 fans who came down to watch the game, and they couldn’t believe how it ended. That put-back they hit to win it was unbelievable.”

Despite the discouraging loss, the future also looks bright for the Costa girls team. Lin, who filled in so well for the injured Cara Susilo, is only a sophomore. Sharpshooter Kristyn Kim, who hit three, 3-point shots in the Fairmont game, is only a freshman.  

And shooting guard Maile Nakaji, who may well be their best all-around player, will be back next year for her senior season. JuJu O’Brien, who emerged as their best defensive player during the season, will be back for her junior season.

But Lapham admitted the four seniors he is losing – front-court warriors Winslow Smith and Hannah Gedion, as well as Susilo and Bella Blum – will be very hard to replace.

“We’re losing 75 percent of our scoring and rebounding,” he said. “But their tenacity, their competitiveness, will be just as hard to replace. We’ve got 11 varsity players coming back, so we’ll field a good team. But the seniors we’re losing are special players.”

Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor. ER

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