By: Ella Mahan
Staff Writer
The Mira Costa Boys Basketball team kicked off their season at the Salesian High Tournament in Santa Fe Springs, California.
The Mustangs played against St. Paul on Nov. 18 and won the first game of the season and the tournament.
After St. Paul won the tip off, the Mustangs scored two 2- pointers to make the score 4-0 in just the first 5 minutes. After just the first quarter, Mira Costa was in the lead with the score being 12-8. Throughout the second quarter of the game, St. Paul began to come back, scoring 6 points in just the first 5 minutes of the quarter. At the end of the 2nd quarter, the score was 20-21, with St. Paul in the lead.
“I think we had a great start to our season with the game against St. Paul because we all worked and played as a team,” senior Max McCalla said.
The Mustangs scored 17 points in the 3rd quarter, bringing the score to 37-33 at the end of the quarter, with Costa in the lead. In the 4th quarter, the Mustangs scored 21 points and St. Paul scored 11 points, bringing the final score to 58-44, with the Mustangs finishing on top.
“I think the team played well in the opener and it was a good way to start the season. I think that we still had some things the team had to work on but we won so that’s the most important part,” sophomore Jesse Waller said.
The Mustangs took the court once again during the second game of the Salesian Tournament on Nov. 19, against Eagle Rock High School. Costa crushed the Eagles with the final score being 74-45. Winning both of the first games of the tournament, Costa went into the next game against Village Christian from Sun Valley, California with a 2-0 record. Village Christian’s record was 2-1 going into the next game against Costa on Nov. 21.
“The game against Eagle Rock was probably our best all around game so far this season,” junior Teagan Disharoon said. “Everyone from the starters to the guys on the bench contributed to the win. We played very good defense which is something that our coach emphasizes everyday and we were all very proud and happy with the win.”
On Nov. 21st, Costa played against the Village Christian Crusaders at Village Christian High School at 5 pm. The Mustangs broke their record of 2-0 at the end of the game when they lost to the Crusaders 50-68. The Mustangs kept an average of scoring around 14 points per quarter, however, in the 2nd quarter the Mustangs scored just 7 points.
“I think we needed to have better defense during this game because we were playing fairly good offense, but we couldn’t keep the other team from scoring,” senior Max McCalla said.
On the other hand, the Crusaders scored an average of 19 points per quarter, except for the 3rd quarter where they scored 12 points. The Mustang’s record was 2-1 going into their fourth and final game of the tournament against Schurr High School.
“After losing the last game against the Village Christian Crusaders, we were hoping to pull through in our final game of the tournament and win,” freshman Dylan Black said.
The Mustangs played against the Spartans on Nov. 21 and lost with the final score being 45-56. At the start of the game, Costa was up 12-11. However, as the game progressed, the Spartans became more and more aggressive on the court. During the 2nd quarter, the Mustangs scored 8 points, while the Spartans scored 11 points.
“I think we did a good job even if we lost because Schurr has a pretty good team,” Waller said.
“I think we just got tired towards the end of the game and hopefully we’ll do better at the next game.”
The gap between the two teams began to increase throughout the second half of the game, with the Spartans scoring 15 points and 19 points in the 3rd and 4th quarter and the Mustangs scoring 7 and 18 points, respectively.
“Our goals for the rest of the season are to keep improving everyday and to do everything we can to win bay league and be the first boys basketball team at Costa to win a CIF Championship,” Disharoon said.
The Mustangs finished the Salesian Tournament with a record of 2-2 and will next face Loyola High School on Nov. 29th.
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