Sammy Miller
Staff Writer
The Mustangs almost grabbed a win from the Cypress Centurions, but fell short by one point, losing 45-44.
The Mira Costa girls basketball team battled it out against Cypress High School Monday, Dec. 11, at Segerstrom High School. Costa’s key players were captains and seniors Hayley Herdman, Kira Escovar, and Kelli Toyooka who contributed with numerous steals and 3 pointers.
“Overall, I believe that our team executed our offense and was able to get good shots, and we just came up short in the end,” Herdman said.
In the first quarter, the Mustangs led 15-14, starting out strong with great ball movement especially from the point guards. The team took smart shots which also contributed to their early lead said Herdman.
“Our weaknesses were too many turnovers, but luckily our strengths were having good ball movement and also getting good, quality shots up,” sophomore Alyssa Toyooka said.
Cypress went on a shooting run in the second quarter and ended it with the Centurions leading 24-21. The Mustangs still continued to keep the score close, but could have been more successful with more rebounds said junior Juliana Chen.
“I believe that our team could have rebounded better and also reduced the number of turnovers,” Chen said.
Costa then took back the lead ending the third quarter up 34-32. Both teams had strong defense and got the job done offensively which created good scoring runs said senior Kelli Toyooka.
“Our team was able to knock down shots and make a few runs that really held the flow of the game, and helped us,” Kelli Toyooka said
With only 8 minutes left in the game, both teams were battling it out, making the fourth quarter extremely close the entire time. The lead continued to go back and forth until Cypress finally took the final lead and won the game by one point, 45-44.
“Towards the end, it just came down to who wanted it more and Cypress brought a lot of effort to the game and stayed in it the whole time,” Herdman said.
The Mustangs will play Corona Del Mar next at 6:00 on Wednesday at Segerstrom High School. The team is now 2-4 and their key for winning upcoming games is to close out games more efficiently, said Kelli Toyooka.
“We had some critical errors that cost the game for us,” Kelli Toyooka said. “We are working on finishing out the game to get a win in future games.”
Leave a Reply