By Cameron Richter and Bobby Wymbs
Staff Writers
Kelani Ikehara, meet Kobe Bryant. The Mira Costa girls basketball team defeated Cajon High School in overtime in the third round of California Interscholastic Federation playoffs on Saturday at Cajon, 64-60. This improves its overall record to 21-10 overall, and 3-0 in CIF play.
Senior guard Camille Mills and junior guard Keilani Ikehara both led the Mustangs in scoring with 17 points apiece, and junior guard Haley Tojo pitched in with ten points, including two 3-pointers in the first quarter. Senior forward Alison Bartak and senior forward Michelle Lanterman each added six points. Mills also grabbed 14 rebounds along with her 17 points.
“We were expecting a tough game, as Cajon was seeded number one in CIF and had won 24 straight games,” coach John Lapham said. “They have tremendous athletes and great rebounders.”
The first quarter of play showed just how competivitve the game would be as both teams shot very well and at the end of the first quarter, Costa had the upper hand, 15-14.
“After the first quarter, I knew it was going to be a competitive game,” freshman forward Alexa Underwood said. “Both teams were shooting well and were playing with full energy.”
Costa dominated the second quarter. However, playing very tough defense and holding Cajon to only four points. Costa also continued to shoot well scoring 13 points and going into halftime, the score was 28-18.
“Going into the second half I felt confident,” Mills said. “I knew we could win.”
The third quarter was very close again as both teams played well on both sides of the ball and going into the final quarter of play, Costa was up as the score was 39-32.
“It was scary,’’ Tojo said. “I was starting to get sad until the last minute because we put all our hard work and it paid off, when Keilani made the three I was so happy.”
In the fourth quarter, Cajon came out very strong and shot very well, scoring 22 points, and tied the game 54-54 at the end of regulation, sending the game into overtime.
“Going into the last quarter I felt that we had so much passion and that we wanted the win more than anything,” Bartak said.
In overtime, Costa played very tough defense, holding Cajon to only six points while scoring ten points themselves and while the clock wound down Costa knew they had upset Cajon and won 64-60.
“They continued to rebound well, and took a 6-point lead with 1:09 left in the 4th quarter,” Lapham said. “But we made several steals, and Keilani Ikehara hit a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left to send the game into overtime.”
Costa’s win in this quarterfinal game of CIF brings them to the semi-final game of the CIF Southern Section division. Costa has been playing very well recently and if they continue to play well all-around then there is a good chance they can make it to the championship game.
“We had played well recently, so we thought we had a chance,” Lapham said. “And we played a very tough schedule, so we were prepared for this.”
Costa advances to the semi finals that will be played on Wednesday night at Costa against their Bay League rival Redondo Union at 7 pm.
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