Photo courtesy Russell Gordon By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Muir took an early 7-0 lead in Friday night’s second round match up of the CIF-SS Division 2-A playoffs at La Salle. The Mustangs had scored 72 points just 48 hours prior in their first-round victory over Simi Valley. But after the 7-point lead to begin […]
Photo courtesy Russell Gordon
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
Muir took an early 7-0 lead in Friday night’s second round match up of the CIF-SS Division 2-A playoffs at La Salle.
The Mustangs had scored 72 points just 48 hours prior in their first-round victory over Simi Valley.
But after the 7-point lead to begin the game, the Mustangs tallied just 26 the rest of the game, including the overtime period.
La Salle went on to outlast Muir, 35-33, in a very low-scoring affair, and the Lancers ended what looked to be a deep Mustangs’ playoff run.
Hunter Woods, who has been spectacular this season, was held to just 8 points on Friday.
“Not to take anything away from their play, but we beat ourselves,” Muir coach Simaine Stewart said. “We went 2 for 6 from the free-throw line, and dribbled into traps when all we had to do was get fouled and make free throws.”
Darius Henderson had a game-high 14 points for La Salle and was, who coach Mike Lynch said, got them into overtime.
“Our big guy, Darius, they were double and triple-teaming him,” Lynch said. “He willed himself to a couple of baskets with guys hanging on them. He sent the game to overtime. In most of our wins, defense has been the key. Defense has been keeping us in the ball game. Our defense is our anchor. They’ve been helping each other defensively and taking away what the other team does well.”
Jaice Gardner had a big game with 10 points and 15 rebounds and it was his lay up with 8 seconds to play that was the eventual game winner.
But Gardner’s first reflection on Friday night’s game was the slow 7-0 start.
“If you’re down 7-0, you have to look at yourself and fix what we’re doing wrong,” Gardner said. “Our defense keeping them to the 30’s is pretty rare. Our team is longer than most teams. We use our length to get out on shooters. We eliminate second-chance shots. When I went up for the lay up, I thought about dunking it, but I missed a dunk earlier, so I wanted to be safe.”
La Salle (21-9) will travel to Oxnard (25-3) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in a quarterfinal match up.
AJ Akobian had 9 for La Salle and Jason Mc Donald’s 2 points accounted for the rest of the Lancers offense.
Muir (18-10) got 7 from Brandon Hicks, Tiyon Martin and Simaine Stewart Jr. each had 5 points apiece, and Javonte James and Eric Hollins each had 4 points.
