May 2, 2024

Girls basketball loses in second round of state to Cajon 51-42

Wyatt Robb

Staff Writer

 

Mira Costa’s girls basketball season came to an end Saturday night in the second round of the state tournament when they were defeated on the road by Cajon High School 51-42.

 

The Mustangs struggled to outmatch Cajon’s size and aggressiveness. On defense, the team was able to minimize open looks for Cowboys’ shooters, but failed to effectively keep them off the boards.

 

“One of our big weaknesses was definitely boxing out and rebounding,” sophomore guard Haley Herdman said. “They were a much bigger and more aggressive team than us.”

 

Early in the game, Costa did a good job suppressing the Cowboys’ offense. After the first quarter, Cajon only led the Mustangs 10-8. However by halftime, a lack of Costa scoring allowed the Cowboys to jump out to an eight point lead making the score 23-15.

 

“I think we needed to do a better job of running our offense early in the game,” junior forward Mia Finney said.

 

In the second half, the Mustangs aggressively worked to counter Cajons scoring. By the end of the third quarter though, Costa was still down 34-24. A final fourth quarter push got the team to within five, but it was unable to gain the lead.

 

“As a team, we were not that upset after the game,” Finney said. “I think we were proud of ourselves for making it as far as we did.”

 

The Mustangs finished their season 8-2 in Bay League, 23-10 overall and second in California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs.

“We really had a fantastic season,” Herdman said. “Our team had some great accomplishments this year.”

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