Mira Costa Hits Stride at an Opportune Time

There are good reasons why the Mira Costa High boys’ basketball team may have been overlooked at the start of Southern Section Division II-A playoffs last week.

The Mustangs had struggled through part of their Ocean League schedule before finishing third behind Morningside and Redondo.

They also did not receive a favorable draw in the division playoffs. They had to travel to play Valencia in the first round and met fourth-seeded Ventura in the second round.

But the Mustangs (20-7) have advanced to the II-A quarterfinals, the first time Mira Costa has reached the quarterfinals in Glenn Marx’s five seasons as coach. They will meet La Palma Kennedy (25-3) in the quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. Friday at South Torrance High.

“I think, objectively speaking, you have to say the II-A is one of the toughest divisions in the (Southern Section),” Marx said. “So we’re quite happy with what we’ve done. Going into the year, we knew we wanted to compete for the league championship. If we couldn’t do that, we wanted to accomplish our goal of getting past the second round, and now we’ve done that.”

Marx said he knew his team had the ability to reach the quarterfinals, although some people may be surprised.

“I think what’s really happened to us is we were highly recognized by the media in January, we were ranked in the state (No. 20 by Cal-Hi Sports News) and then we went into a little tailspin,” he said. “I think we were overlooked a little going into the playoffs, but I knew what kind of team we had.”

The Mustangs have played well the past three weeks, winning six of seven games, including a victory over Morningside on Feb. 9. Seniors Josh Branca, Frank Zeno and John Murphy and junior Shane Willis have lead the charge.

“It’s been a nice run and we haven’t been entirely healthy the last few weeks, but we’re pretty healthy now,” he said.

Marx said he tried to keep his team fresh for the playoffs and his strategy appears to be paying off.

“We did a few things in the middle of the season and tried to maintain a more relaxed environment going into the playoffs,” he said. “So, maybe the letdown that we had in the middle of the season wasn’t that bad for us in certain respects.”

He realizes that the Mustangs are in for a difficult game against Kennedy, which has won 24 consecutive games and is ranked third in Orange County behind Mater Dei and Huntington Beach.

“It gets highly competitive at this point,” Marx said. “I think all of these teams are good, and nobody should feel disappointed about what happens after this. We feel we’re capable of winning the title, but so are some other teams.”

Inglewood Coach Patrick Roy is in a good position to remember the last time that the Sentinels advanced past the early rounds of the Southern Section playoffs.

Roy was a member of Inglewood’s 1982 team that lost to Lakewood for the Southern Section 4-A Division championship.

In his first season as Sentinel coach, he has similar aspirations. But for the moment, Roy is content that Inglewood has reached the quarterfinals of the II-AA playoffs. The Sentinels (20-9) will play fourth-seeded Cajon (24-4) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at San Gorgonio High in San Bernardino.

Despite the fact that Inglewood won the Bay League title, Roy said a lot of people are probably surprised that the Sentinels are still alive in the playoffs.

Inglewood had to get past two difficult opponents, Compton and Tustin, to advance to the quarterfinals.

“We’re kind of the tiptoe team,” Roy said. “Nobody expected us to still be in it at this point.”

Roy said he never doubted his team’s ability, though.

“I thought we could go as far as we have right now,” he said. “But this is as far as Inglewood has gone in a long time and I’m sure some people are surprised.”

Inglewood has been led by forward Givon Hester, who scored 19 points in his team’s 62-54 win Tuesday over Tustin in the second round. But Roy said there is another factor in the team’s success.

“I think we’ve played good help defense and that’s allowed us to recover from difficult situations,” he said. “If we can keep playing good defense, we can control the (rebounding) and stay in it against anybody.”

That includes highly regarded Cajon.

“Cajon will be real tough for us, but we feel that anybody can win at this point of the playoffs and we’ll be ready,” Roy said.

In recent seasons, the City Section 3-A Division basketball champion has received an automatic berth in the state playoffs.

That will not be the case this season as a result of a change in policy by the City.

The City’s two state tournament berths in both boys and girls divisions are expected to go to the 4-A champion and the 4-A runner-up.

But 3-A coaches from the South Bay do not seem particularly upset about the prospect of winning a division title and not being able to advance to the state playoffs. That is partly because 3-A champions have had not fared well in the state playoffs over the years.

“I can understand their argument,” Gardena Coach Rodney Tange said. “I don’t know how long the 3-A has played in the state tournament, but they haven’t won yet.”

Added Banning Coach Marc Paez, whose team was seeded second in the 3-A playoffs: “I understand their reasoning and I know they wanted to have the teams with the best chance of moving on competing in the state playoffs. I knew when we were realigned into the 3-A (after last season) that we probably wouldn’t have a chance to go to the state playoffs.”

Paez and Tange acknowledge they are a little disappointed about the possibility of their teams winning the 3-A and not being able to compete in the state tournament.

“In the event that we were to get to that point, I’d probably be disappointed,” Paez said. “But at this point, I try not to think too far ahead and I don’t want my players to either.”

The coaches agree they would be more than happy to settle for the consolation prize of winning a City title.

“Trust me, if Banning is fortunate enough to win four games in the playoffs and win the title, we won’t feel slighted in the least,” Paez said.

South Bay Boys’ Basketball Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters Through Tuesday’s Games Rank, School, League: Record 1 Morningside (Ocean): 23-5 2 Bishop Montgomery (Mission): 21-2 3 Westchester (Metro): 20-6 4 Serra (Camino Real): 19-7 5 Inglewood (Bay): 18-9 6 Peninsula (Bay): 20-7 7 South Torrance (Pioneer): 24-2 8 Mira Costa (Ocean): 20-7 9 Chadwick (Prep): 19-7 10 North Torrance (Pioneer): 15-11