Mustangs can’t stand Seahawks’ heat inside

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Rebounding has been a chink in the Costa Mesa High boys’ basketball team’s armor this season. Sometimes it is exposed by an opponent’s size and sometimes by self inflicted wounds.

Tuesday at Ocean View was a little bit of both.

The Seahawks brought size, five players 6-foot-5 or taller, and the Mustangs couldn’t find their shooting touch which Costa Mesa Coach Jeff McDaniel said is the team’s key defense against being taken advantage of in rebounding.

Thirty-two minutes later the Seahawks had a 67-53 nonleague win, their second in a row, and the Mustangs never led and left with their second straight loss by 10 or more points.

“Their size got to us,” McDaniel said. “Their second- and third-chance points got to us.”

The Seahawks (7-6) held a 10-2 edge in second-chance points and outscored the Mustangs, 44-26, in points in the paint.

“We need to make shots,” McDaniel said. “We had a lot of open looks. We just didn’t hit them. [Ocean View’s JB Brown] destroyed us on the boards. We blocked out well. They were just too big. We’re going to face it sometimes this season. We just need to work on the little things. Basically it comes down to making shots.”

The Mustangs (10-5) connected on six-of-15 three-point shots, but struggled from inside the arc. Seniors Larry Puente and Moses Titus each scored 13 points for the Mustangs, while senior Hung Duong scored 10.

Puente said his New Year’s resolution was to keep playing hard and knock down more shots.

“We played all right for spurts,” Puente said. “We just couldn’t keep it up. They weren’t tough. They just kept battling us on the inside. We just need to keep working on rebounding. We needed to run a little more because they were getting to set up their defense.”

It was Costa Mesa’s second game in a week, while Ocean View played for the fifth time in six days. Titus said the team came into the game a little out of rhythm.

“We were slow,” he said. “We weren’t ready and in the beginning we just lost it.”

The Seahawks started the game with a 9-1 run and the Mustangs would only close to within two points once the remainder of the game.

“Our shots weren’t going in,” said Titus who answered the opening Ocean View, 9-1, run with three consecutive three-pointers. “It’s kind of hard to guard a shooter at one end and then shoot on the other.”

Costa Mesa remained in contention until two minutes remaining in the third quarter when Ocean View went on a 15-0 run over the next three minutes. The Seahawks extended the lead to 18 points.

Nonleague

Ocean View 67,

Costa Mesa 53

Score by Quarters

Costa Mesa 13 15 12 13 — 53 Ocean View 19 17 14 17 — 67

Costa Mesa -- Puente 13, Titus 13, Duong 10, Weber 6, Molina 4, Waldron 4, Nguyen 3.

3-pt. goals -- Titus 3, Nguyen 1, Duong 2.

Ocean View -- Clifford 14, Brown 11, Johnson 8, Smith 8, Horiuchi 4, Aboubaker 4, Ishimoto 4, Baca 4, Sawyer 2, Holz 2, Lababidi 2, Blythe 2.

3-pt. goals -- Smith 2.