Girls basketball: Mira Costa doesn’t execute and drops second in a row

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Mira Costa, ranked No. 7 in the Southland by The Times, needed a couple of big shots to beat No. 17 Mater Dei in the final 53 seconds of its game Friday at the Nike Extravaganza. It didn’t get them, and lost, 51-47.

Mira Costa, which trailed, 48-43, possesses a terrific three-point shooter in Cal State Fullerton-bound Megan Richardson.

But over those final ticks of the clock, Mira Costa didn’t shoot a single three-pointer. It did get off shots from 14, 16, 18 feet, and one inside the paint at the buzzer. Weird.

‘We just didn’t execute,’ said Richardson, who finished with 14 points. ‘We came off a tough loss last night (to Bay League rival Redondo) and didn’t play to our caliber. I tried to go to the line and get an ‘and one.’ But we just didn’t execute at the end.’

Mira Costa was led by Mika Maly-Karros, who scored a game-high 24 points and had 16 rebounds.

Richardson (six of 15) and Karros (11 of 19) were 17 of 34 from the field; the rest of the team was four of 16.

Mira Costa (19-5) has now lost back-to-back games, to No. 8 Redondo and No. 17 Mater Dei (22-3).

-- Martin Henderson