PREPS / CAP CAREY : Mira Costa Found Its Place in the Sun

They were 3,000 miles away from home, but with familiar sand at their feet and some familiar faces to greet them, Mira Costa High basketball players brought home a championship trophy from Hawaii this week.

Mira Costa defeated Crescenta Valley, 70-65, Wednesday night to win the Walter Wong St. Louis Holiday Classic in Honolulu.

The Mustangs (12-2) were guided around Oahu by relatives of senior guard Shane Willis and by Coach Glenn Marx, who previously worked as an assistant at the University of Hawaii.

Another touch of home came in the form of sand outside the team’s hotel near Waikiki Beach. According to Wilmer Drake of the Manhattan Beach Historical Society, the developers of Waikiki Beach arranged to have sand from Manhattan Beach shipped to Waikiki in 1919 because they felt it was the cleanest beach sand they had seen.

Mira Costa defeated two Hawaiian schools, Mary Knoll, 56-39, and Kahuku, 50-35, to reach a tournament championship game for the seventh consecutive time.

“I thought we had an excellent balance (of basketball and sightseeing),” Marx said. “We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, and being able to visit Shane Willis’ relatives gave us a chance to spend time with some local families.”

Senior point guard Josh Branca sprained an ankle in the semifinal victory over Kahuku, but after being taped and iced he was able to play every minute of the championship game, scoring 29 points, including six three-point shots, and was named most valuable player.

“I had never been (to Hawaii) before, so it was a lot of fun,” Branca said.

The Mustangs trailed Crescenta Valley, 21-12, after the first quarter. Willis had already picked up three fouls. Mira Costa cut its deficit to six at the half, three at the end of the third quarter, and outscored Crescenta Valley, 21-13, in the fourth quarter.

After winning the championship game, Mira Costa’s players were walking in the Waikiki Beach area when they ran into the Michigan Wolverines, who had just won the Rainbow Classic.

“They were outside of where we were going and some of the kids said to them, ‘Congratulations on your championship, we just won one too,’ ” Marx said. “And then they asked us what we had won and we wound up celebrating with them for a while.”

Hanging around with Michigan’s “Fab Five” was one of the highlights of the trip for the Mustangs.

“That was a great experience,” Branca said. “They were real classy, nice guys.

Senior forward Frank Zeno, an all-tournament selection, also enjoyed meeting members of last season’s NCAA runner-up team.

“That was pretty cool,” Zeno said. “Some of the guys were talking to (Michigan players) Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.”

For Willis, who also made the all-tournament team, the trip gave him a chance to play in front of relatives and visit their homes. He had never been to Hawaii before.

“I thought it was a great experience, it brought our team closer together,” Willis said. “It was good to get a chance to play in front of (my relatives).”

Mira Costa has reached the final of the last seven regular-season tournaments it has played in, winning three titles. Wednesday’s victory was their first in a tournament final in three attempts this season.

On Dec. 5, the Mustangs lost a home game to Morningside, 68-60, in the championship game of the Pacific Shores tournament. On Dec. 11, playing their eighth game in 10 days, the Mustangs lost to Bishop Montgomery, 62-57, in the championship game of the El Segundo tournament.

“It was a great feeling finally winning a championship,” Willis said. “Crescenta Valley’s a great team and we were able to knock them off.”

To complete the trip, Mira Costa arrived at the Honolulu airport for its trip home just as the Hawaii football team landed after winning the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.

Mira Costa opens Ocean League play Friday night at Beverly Hills.

The Narbonne girls’ basketball team upset Morningside, 49-48, in the quarterfinals of the L.A. Invitational tournament Tuesday, but the victory was costly as the team’s top player, Denise Takamoto, broke a bone in her wrist and may be lost for the season.

Narbonne Coach Glen Kaminishi said Takamoto’s injury tempered his team’s celebration.

Narbonne (6-6) won on a basket by Lenora Tuisalo’o with 45 seconds remaining.

Morningside (9-2) played without its best player, 6-foot-2 center Tina Thompson.

The loss of Takamoto, who scored 18 points in the game, affected the Gauchos the following night, according to Kaminishi, in a 52-23 semifinal loss to Kennedy.

“It took a lot out of the team,” Kaminishi said.