Clinging to an eight-point lead going into the fourth quarter of its Southern Section Division 1 semifinal playoff, Mira Costa made sure there would be no Santa Barbara comeback.
The Mustangs held Santa Barbara scoreless for more than five minutes to start the quarter and came away with a 61-40 victory Saturday night.
Eneasi Piuleini scored 19 points, McCarthy Bedner had 16 points and Jacob De Armas 12 points for a Mira Costa team that is 29-3 and will play Los Alamitos for the Division 1 championship next Saturday at Toyota Arena in Ontario.
“I love this group of seniors and love this team,” Mira Costa coach Neal Perlmutter said.
It’s a neighborhood team whose players had to wait their turn and come up from the bottom and deliver when the opportunity presented itself. De Armas and Piuleini started as freshman junior varsity players before becoming senior stars. Each had dunks that energized Mira Costa’s home crowd.
“Good things take time to marinate,” Perlmutter said. “It feels good the guys who stuck around were rewarded.”
Mira Costa’s defense held Santa Barbara’s Luke Zuffelato to seven points and only three shots in the first half. He finished with 16 points.
Franklin 69, South East 65: Adam Sanchez scored 23 points and RJ Sanders 22 points to help No. 13-seeded Franklin advance in the City Section Division II playoffs.
Sun Valley Poly 52, LACES 35: The Parrots advanced to the City Division I semifinals. JD Wyatt scored 28 points.
Grant 69, El Camino Real 52: Champ Merrill scored 22 points to help the Lancers become the second East Valley League team in the City Division I semifinals.
