Mira Costa’s girls basketball team moved one step closer to a rematch with rival Redondo advancing to the CIF Southern Section Division 2AA semifinals with a 54-44 home win against Canyon/Canyon Country Saturday night.
Second-seeded Mira Costa (23-6) will travel to face No. 6 Norco (22-8) in a 7 p.m. contest on Tuesday. Norco was impressive in its quarterfinal victory, eliminating third-seeded Eisenhower 64-40.
With its outside shooting game under par, the Mustangs relied on a stifling defense and another stellar performance from sophomore Allie Navarette.
Navarette scored seven of her game-high 22 points in the first quarter to help Mira Costa jump out to an 18-5 lead.
After scoring five points in the first period, Canyon’s 6-foot-1 standout Delaney McCann was held to two points in the second period and the Cowboys turned to Alexa Porchia who finished with a team-high 12 points while grabbing seven rebounds. McCann finished with 11 points.
“We were very concerned about No. 33 (McCann) who is a phenomenal player that can shoot drive and pass,” Mira Costa coach John Lapham said. “We had to take the high-low out of their offense. I was really proud of our game plan and think the girls executed it very well. We mixed in some zone configurations we hadn’t played before. I think we shot as poorly tonight from the outside as we have all year., but we made up for it inside and at the free throw line.”
Tenth-ranked Canyon cut the deficit to nine points going into halftime trailing 28-19 but Navarette’s three consecutive baskets increased Mira Costa’s lead to 44-27. Porchia’s 3-pointer at the buzzer trimmed the Mustang’s lead to 44-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
Navarette added six points in the final period to seal the victory.
“We had so much intensity at practice and we’ve been working really hard on defense and that was our key component in this game,” Navarette said. “I’m so proud of my team. We’ve been working on our high-low game because when our shots aren’t falling we need to get it into our post so we did really well on that tonight. We deserved that 20-point win. We have a lot of heart and we really wanted this game.”
Patience Taylor added 14 points and 14 rebounds and Laura Shekter contributed six points for the Mustangs.
While Mira Costa was taking care of business up the coast, Redondo was handling Tesoro in Sea Hawk Pavilion.
Top-seeded Redondo (22-6) pulled away for a 45-37 win and will make the long bus ride to take on fourth-seeded Santa Barbara (23-5) in the other Division 2AA semifinal on Tuesday.
Kyra Hamlin led Redondo with 11 points and Amiete Nyingifa added points in the win.
The South Bay showed its prominence in girls basketball with one additional team reaching the semifinals and two playing for CIF championships in their respective divisions.
In Division 2A, third-seeded South Torrance (21-7) defeated Patriot 61-47 and will host second-seeded Hart (23-6) in the semifinals on Tuesday.
In Division 3AA, top-seeded North Torrance (26-2) continued to roll eliminating Corona 56-26 on Saturday. During the playoffs, the Saxons have outscored their opponents 248-110 and will face second-seeded El Dorado (24-7) in the CIF championship game on either Friday or Saturday.
Bishop Montgomery (17-13) will also play for a CIF title. The third-seeded Knights eliminated second-seeded Harvard-Westlake 63-51 and will face top-seeded JSerra (23-6) in the Division 4AA championship game on either Friday or Saturday.
Venues and times for girls basketball championship games will be posted Monday at 2 p.m. at cifss.org.
