Tuesday road wins add more mystery to CIF SS Open race

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REDONDO BEACH – And, with just Wednesday night’s action remaining in the “regular season”, can trying to project what the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division boys’ basketball playoff field will look like when its unveiled Saturday, at noon, be any more headache inducing?

Pass the Excedrin, please . . .

CIF SS Computer ratings (as of Monday) are included . .

Tuesday night road victories by No. 9 Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks (83-72 over No. 6 Sierra Canyon, in a Mission League tourney semifinal); No. 4 St. John Bosco (71-53 vs. No. 7 JSerra, in a Trinity League finale) and – especially – No. 13 Mira Costa (69-68 against No. 5 Redondo Union, to create a co-championship in the Bay League), left a lot for the computer to chew on and spit out.

And the “Will it be the (traditional) eight-team, pool-play format  or will it expand to 10 teams?” debate about the Open Division will rage until Saturday.

Plus, the results of No. 8 La Mirada’s Gateway League finale with visiting and No. 63 Mayfair Wednesday night, as well as the Notre Dame at No. 1 Harvard-Westlake, Mission League tourney finale, will be crunched by the computer with the other Southern Section results before the brackets are finalized.

The season-long resumes of 26-1 Harvard-Westlake and No. 2 and 27-2 Eastvale Roosevelt (which smacked Corona Centennial, 83-51, behind Brayden Burries’ 39 points, in the Big VIII League tourney final Tuesday night at Santiago High), have them locked in for the first two slots of the Open field.

And No. 3 Santa Margarita (which rolled over host Servite, 84-43, in a Trinity finale Tuesday night and is 22-5) and St. John Bosco (24-4) will round out the first four – although the magnitude (ratings-wise) of the Braves’ win at JSerra might be enough to flip their pecking order.

The options are more complex for No.’s 5 thru 8 , or 5 thru 10, if the field is expanded by two.

Redondo Union (23-3), Sierra Canyon (22-7), JSerra (21-7), La Mirada (23-4 before its Wednesday night game), Notre Dame (22-5 before its trek to Studio City Wednesday night) and No. 10 Heritage Christian (25-3 following its 57-43, Olympic League finale with Village Christian Tuesday) are – numerically – the leading options to fill 5 thru 8, or 5 thru 10 if the Open field is expanded by two.

Did Mira Costa (25-3) pick up enough computer bytes thru the Tuesday win in front of a SRO crowd in the Redondo gymnasium to climb to No. 8 or even 10 in an expanded field?

It seems unlikely but anything approaching an “absolute” projection – even  this close to the brackets’ public display – is foolhardy.

Redondo – which carried a 12-game win streak into the game – prevailed, 76-64, when the Sea Hawks and the Mustangs met at Mira Costa on Jan. 10.

But even the 11-point advantage they held at intermission seemed precarious, relative to the 11 turnovers they had committed (seven in the second quarter).

Senior forward Hudson Mayes (19 points, nine rebounds and four assists)  powered his way on a drive to an “And 1!” that pushed the edge to 14 points on the first possession of the second half.

But the Mustangs’ full court defensive pressure  – and the offensive skill  and execution they displayed in the second half – fueled the comeback and one of the most energy-fueled (on and off the court) fourth quarters of the season.

Coach Neal Perlmutter’s defense was the reason the Mustangs trailed by only 11 points at intermission as his best offensive players, Eneasi Piuleini and Jacob De Armas, had just two points apiece, and the team missed 10 of 12 shots from behind the arc.

But the Sea Hawks committed 11 turnovers in that stretch, with their handling and passing miscues usually occurring before they could get into their half-court offense.

Even with the visitors hitting seven of 11 shots from the field in the third quarter (four of those 3s by guard Bryson Bryker), the hosts still held an eight-point edge going into the fourth quarter.

Before the game, Perlmutter said that Piuleini had been a remarkably effective jump shooter this season before a “slump” over the past couple of weeks seemingly shook the 6-foot-7 senior’s confidence.

Piuleini hit his only shot attempt – a left corner 3 – in the third quarter for his first bucket.

His “And 1!” got the visitors to within 55-50 with 6:58 to go, but the deficit was back to seven (61-54) following a mid-range jumper by junior S.J. Madison with 2:38 remaining.

And then the action got frenetic.

A short jumper by Mayes (who finished with 19 points) with 2:03 to go had the Redondo lead still at seven points.

But it took the Mustangs just six seconds to respond,  pushing the ball  up court immediately after the inbound pass, with Bryker getting behind the defense for a layup while being fouled by Chace Holley.

His free throw cut the deficit to four with 1:57 to play before sophomore Chris Sanders’ short off-(right)-handed jumper pushed the Redondo lead to six 15 seconds later.

By then, Piuleini (pictured) seemed to have regained all that confidence – and then some  – in his jump shot.

In a 55-second stretch – from 1:33 to 38 seconds remaining –  he hit three jumpers, sandwiched around a couple of Redondo turnovers.

The second of those, a 3 from the right corner, cut his team’s deficit to a point and the second, a mid-range pull up from the right side after shaking a defender out of his face with a hard shot fake, put his team up, 68-67.

Madison missed a short attempt at the other end, but Sanders was fouled while trying to follow the ball in with 25 seconds remaining.

The sophomore is something approaching 75 percent from the free-throw line but missed both attempts.

The Mustangs couldn’t secure the defensive rebound, though, with Holley gaining possession of the ball and Redondo Coach Reggie Morris, Jr. calling a timeout with 16.7 seconds to go.

When play resumed, the visitors committed two fouls, the second sending Holley to the free-throw line with 13.8 seconds remaining.

He missed the first but tied the score with the second – the Mustangs again sprinting the ball up the floor after the inbound pass.

De Armas, driving hard from the left side of the top of the key, got an angle on Madison who was called for the foul with 6.0 on the game clock.
He made the first attempt but missed his second, Mayes rebounding.

He took two dribble, passed to Madison near mid-court, who fired a pass into the right corner (in front of his bench) to Brayden Miner, who had already swished four 3s.

Miner – understandably, since he caught the pass with two seconds to go – rushed his usually impeccable release ever so slightly, and the ball glanced off the side of the rim as the buzzer sounded, securing the Mira Costa win and setting off an on-court, and in-gym, celebration by the Mustangs and seemingly half the population of Manhattan Beach.

“For whatever reason, we didn’t press them as much or play as aggressively (on offense) as we have all season in our first game with them,” Perlmutter said.

“I told the team (before the game), even if we lose by 20 points, we’ve got to press them (full court) and push the (offensive) tempo. That’s ‘who we are’ and I thought that was going to give us our best shot of winning tonight, when no one else expected us to come in here and win.”