Mesa wins on guts

Patrick Laverty

Coming off its worst loss of the season, the Costa Mesa High boys

basketball team could have gone in any direction in its second-place

Golden West League showdown at Orange Thursday.

In order to keep things simple, Mustangs Coach Bob Serven

emphasized the philosophy of another Newport-Mesa coach.

“We’re trying to just win one game at a time,” Serven said. “It’s

something I learned from [Newport Harbor High football coach] Jeff

Brinkley. That was our approach. We hadn’t played [in a week]. We

could have looked ahead to Estancia. But because we got beat by these

guys before, we were real focused.”

And the Mustangs were able to avenge that earlier defeat and pull

into a virtual second-place tie with the Panthers, holding off their

second-half rally and emerging with a 43-37 win.

Because Costa Mesa (15-8, 6-3 in league) has played one more game

than Orange (10-14, 7-3), it remains a half-game behind the Panthers.

But the Mustangs, who finish the season against Estancia, Westminster

and Santa Ana, control their own destiny. Three victories and Mesa

will finish no worse than a tie for second place.

But none of the final three games will be easy and though the

Mustangs held an early 16-point advantage against Orange, the

Panthers didn’t make it easy either.

In a similar fashion to its victory over Mesa earlier this year,

when it came back from a nine-point halftime deficit to win 53-42,

Orange hacked away at the Mustangs’ 27-11 halftime advantage over the

final two quarters.

The Panthers closed to within three points three times in the

final quarter, but each time Mesa had an answer.

Jeff Waldron, who led the Mustangs with 19 points, hit a pair of

free throws with 4:47 remaining in the game after Orange had pulled

to within 32-29.

A three-pointer by Orange junior Brandon Palmer with 3:05

remaining brought the Panthers to within 36-33. But Waldron again

extended the lead, first coming up with a steal on defense, then

scoring off an assist from Brian Molina.

With 1:06 remaining, a bank shot by Andrew Dismuke, who led the

Panthers with 15 points and 18 rebounds, made the score 38-35.

This time it was Mesa’s Marko Stankovic who prevented Orange from

getting any closer, scoring an inside bucket off an assist from

Molina with 39 seconds remaining, putting Mesa up by five points,

enough to seal the win.

Stankovic, who finished with four points and 10 rebounds, helped

Mesa open a 21-5 lead early in the second quarter, grabbing seven of

his boards in the first half.

“Marko didn’t grab many rebounds in the second half, but he really

set the tone in the first half,” Serven said.

The other tone-setter was Mesa’s defense, which limited Orange to

just five points in the first quarter and 11 in the first half.

“I think we were a little more solid on defense,” Serven said.

“There was a big difference in our defense. A lot of that credit goes

to [assistant coach] Carl Smith. He really got our guys to understand

what they were going to do against our zone. It set the tone with

that 11-point first half.”

With the defense playing strong, Mesa opened things up by hitting

four of their first six shots in the game, all three-pointers.

It was a stark contrast to the Mustangs’ previous game, a 68-27

loss to Ocean View, when Mesa made just seven shots in the entire

contest.

Sophomores Scott Knox and Tony Krikorian each had two

three-pointers in the first quarter. Knox has now made at least one

three-pointer in all 23 games this season and has 69 three-pointers

in all.

“I think it’s a big win because they beat us at our place in a

game that we thought we had control of,” Serven said. “This time, we

just kind of gutted it out.”

*--*

Golden West League

Costa Mesa 43, Orange 37

Score by Quarters

Costa Mesa 16 11 4 12 -- 43

Orange 5 6 10 16 -- 37

Costa Mesa -- Molina 3, Knox 10, Krikorian 7, Waldron 19, Stankovic 4, Aleson 0, Gandia 0.

3-pt. goals -- Knox 2, Krikorian 2, Waldron

1. Fouled out -- None. Technicals -- None.

Orange -- Palmer 3, Crain 5, Nguyen 10, Gama

2, Dismuke 15, Walker 2. 3-pt. goals --

Palmer 1, Crain 1, Nguyen 3. Fouled out --

None. Technicals -- None.

*--*