by Paul Teetor
Monday night at home against Peninsula was supposed to be a get-well game for the Mira Costa boys basketball team.
They were coming off the worst stretch of the season – four losses in five games – and they needed to get their mojo back after an 11-2 start that went off the rails over the holidays.
Sometimes a good team – and Costa is definitely a good team — plays up to its competition, as the Mustangs did early in the season in beating both Loyola and Riverside Poly among several other elite teams.
But sometimes a good team plays down to its competition and plays sloppily.
That’s what happened when the 13-6 Mira Costa boys basketball team played down to its competition – a 6-10 Peninsula team – and put on a display of bad basketball, at least in the first half.
The game featured missed layup after missed layup, rebounds fumbled out of bounds, off-target passes and more turnovers than a vegan bakery.
In the end, they got their get-well win – 72-29 – but it was painful to watch, from either side of the gym.
“A win is a win,” Mira Costa Coach Neal Perlmutter said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we’re coming off four losses in five games so we’ll take it.”
Costa jumped out to an 8-0 lead behind a 10-foot shot by jumping-jack forward Jacob De Armas and a 5-foot-baseline jumper by all around glue guy James Reach, the only senior in the team’s junior-heavy rotation.
Peninsula finally scored on a put-back, but Costa went on another 8-0 run highlighted by consecutive power dunks by De Armas and Preston “Master P” Ezewiro.
Peninsula answered with its second hoop to pull within 16-4, but its coach was mad at the mis-match and let his players know it on the sideline during a timeout.
Reach had a steal and layup on a coast-to-coast sprint and the first quarter was soon over with the score 20-6. Neither side could feel good about its performance: Peninsula for the mis-match in talent, and Costa because it was trying too hard after a tough – and totally unexpected – Bay League loss to Culver City Friday night by a score of 69-59.
“Culver City killed us on the glass,” Perlmutter said. “They have two Division 1 athletes who came off the football team, and since they’ve been back Culver City is a lot tougher. We didn’t take them lightly. They were a tougher team than us on that night.”
That early league loss – the Mustangs are now 2-1 in league and 13-6 overall – puts defending league champion Costa in a tough spot. Now they will have to beat Redondo, the other elite team in the league, twice to have a chance at holding onto their league title.
Redondo is a powerhouse once again under Coach Reggie Morris, who is back for his second stint with the Sea Hawks. He returned last season and has now had a year to recruit players from near and far who want to play for an elite program. He has them undefeated in league play at 2-0 and 14-4 overall. At last sight, the LA Times had them ranked 18th in the Southland.
The two archrivals will play each other next Tuesday, January 16, at Redondo.
“They’re extremely talented,” Perlmutter said. “So we’ll have our hands full.”
Overall, the Mustang coach said, his team has to get back to the form they displayed early in the season while sprinting out to a 11-2 record.
“We have a ways to go,” he said. “I knew there would be growing pains with so many juniors on our team. We just have to get tougher. But I really think our best basketball is in front of us.”
Meanwhile the Mira Costa girls team continued what could be the greatest season in modern Mira Costa history with a 73-28 demolition of Peninsula. The win brings the team’s season record to 3-0 in the Bay League and 18-2 overall. They are on track to win the Bay League and possibly win CIF in the postseason.
From freshman sensation Kylee Yeh to senior two-way star JuJu O’Brien, the lady Mustangs are loaded with talent up and down the roster. We really won’t know how good this team is until we see how much noise they make in the postseason. Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
