Sammy Miller
Staff Writer
The Mustangs were shooting for a win but couldn’t knock their shots in to defeat the Knights.
Mira Costa’s girls basketball team fell short to Lynwood High School in the first round of California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs by a deficit of 22 points on Feb. 15 with a score of 53-31. The top performer included senior Haley Herdman who led the team capitalizing Costa’s offense with her smart passes to her teammates.
“Our team really did play great and played together as one,” Herdman said. “I am so proud of us and how we were staying positive and keeping our heads up.”
The Mustangs and Knights started out strong in the first few minutes, but then the Knights were able to stop the Mustangs from scoring with their tough defense, resulting in a score of 16-7.
“Lynwood brought a lot of intensity from the beginning and were playing very tough defense which made it difficult for us to get our shots up,” sophomore Kim Waller said.”
The second quarter ended with Lynwood leading 25-11, Costa was unable to execute their offensive plays due to Lynwood’s tight defense. The Mustangs were able to hold the Knights to 25 points due to their defense and causing Lynwood to turnover.
“We did a really good job on defense by being very aggressive and also pressuring them causing them to not score as much,” sophomore Skylar Herdman said.
The third quarter ended 37-14, which was filled with numerous points in the paint for the Knights, Costa regained momentum and was able to put points on the board with perimeter shots and good ball movement.
“Areas that we could have improved on were improving our boxing out, getting more offensive rebounds and also improving our offense by cutting more,” sophomore Alyssa Toyooka said.
Costa began to get into a rhythm, scoring 17 points in the last 8 minutes. It was too late for the Mustangs and the Knights were able to pull out a win with a score of 53-31.
“We continued to play our hardest on every single play and made great defensive moves that limited Lynwood on their offense,” Waller said.
This marks the end of the Mustangs season with a finish of 15-13 overall record and 7-3 record in Bay League. Costa will be saying goodbye to their 4 seniors, who are so proud of each other and all of the girls in the program according to senior Kira Escovar.
“I know the girls that go through this program become so much stronger emotionally and physically just like I did and I am so proud of not only the seniors but everyone in the program,” Escovar said.
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