MANHATTAN BEACH — Mira Costa had all the answers to stopping Santa Barbara High’s potent offense in the CIF-SS Division 1 boys basketball semifinals on Saturday night.
The second-seeded Mustangs used multiple player substitutions to sustain a relentless trapping defense and disrupted Santa Barbara’s offensive flow to beat the Dons 61-40 before a capacity crowd at the Mira Costa gym.
Mira Costa (29-3) will play Los Alamitos for the Division title next Saturday.
The Dons, who knocked down 16 three-pointers in eliminating Mater Dei in the quarterfinals, struggled from behind the arc all night, making only six. Luke Zuffelato, facing double-team pressure almost every time in touched the ball, made five threes and finished as the only Santa Barbara player in double figures with 16 points.
The Mustangs’ tag-team of defenders also contained guards Diesel Lowe and Carter Battle, who’ve been clutch in big games this season.
“Trust me, I lost a lot of sleep thinking about how many threes they were going to hit after they hit 16 against Mater Dei,” said Mira Costa coach Neal Perlmutter, who guided West Torrance to a CIF-SS title in 2017. “I was nervous all day. But, you know, our goal with every game is to wear (the opponent) down. You can watch the pressure on tape, but it’s a whole different thing when you’re getting pressed for 32 minutes and we’re relentless. And, I’m playing nine guys and they play for each other and, when you do that, good things happen.”
Despite its shooting struggles, Santa Barbara was down by just eight points (38-30) entering the fourth quarter. But the Dons committed a foul, missed a couple of threes, and had a turnover on the first four possessions of the quarter. They went nearly six minutes without a point.
Mira Costa capitalized, scoring on a pair of dunks by Jacob De Armas during an 8-0 run to go up 46-30 with 3:35 left in the game.
Eneasi Piuleini, a cat-quick, high-leaping forward, led the Mustangs with 19 points, 12 of them coming in the second half. McCarthy Bender had 16 points and De Armas finished with 10.
Patience on offense has been a key to Santa Barbara’s success in the Division 1 bracket. That patience was going to be seriously tested against Mira Costa’s aggressive, trapping defense.
“We talked before the game and I wrote (on the board), ‘Shoot our shot.’ That press is designed to get people to do things they don’t do normally,” said Santa Barbara coach Greg Zuffelato of Mira Costa’s pressure.
“In the second half, that happened more often than not. We shot shots that aren’t normal, out of our rhythm. It’s really hard to run an offense because they’re always trapping. But I told them, ‘Let’s refocus. That’s the best team in Southern California, so let’s get ready to go to state.’”
By reaching the Division 1 final four, the Dons (26-6) qualified for a berth in the CIF State Tournament, which will begin in two weeks.
Mira Costa got a huge lift in the first quarter when sophomore Paxx Bell came off the bench, buried two threes, and scored on an offensive rebound, helping the Mustangs take a 14-11 lead. Bell was one of several substitutes coach Perlmutter made in the first half to keep everyone fresh.
“We knew that No. 0 (Carter Battle) Zuffelato and No. 4 (Diesel Lowe) and some of their other guys were going to 29, 32, 31 minutes, and I trust my bench,” said Perlmutter. “So Paxx Bell came in and had some big shots as a sophomore off the bench and gave us some energy. And then our seniors carried us down the stretch. That’s what it’s all about.”
Zuffelato hit a three-pointer to open the second quarter and Mira Costa responded with a 7-0 run. Bender scored in the post, Luke Hammerschmidt on a drive and Piuleini converted a three-point play to take command. The Mustangs led 29-23 at halftime.
Mira Costa pushed the lead to 10 (33-23) in the third quarter before Santa Barbara put together its only scoring run of the game, a 7-1 advantage that cut the deficit to four (34-30) with 3:20 left. But the Dons wouldn’t score again until there was 2:54 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“We’re getting open. They’re doubling Luke and he was hitting the open man and (the shots) just weren’t going in,” said coach Zuffelato. “We tried to isolate and clear for Luke to drive and get to the rim, get Carter to the rim. They just did a good job of stopping us.”