Mesa pulls out 54-52 win

Bryce Alderton

Once players on the Costa Mesa High boys basketball team got the

ball past midcourt, all was well. It was getting it past the

half-court line that drained globs of energy from seemingly every

Mustang who took an inbounds pass Friday night against a pressuring

visiting Saddleback team. When Mesa broke the press, easy layups

resulted, and the Mustangs held on for a 54-52 win in Golden West

League play.

Mesa (7-13, 2-4 in league) looked lackadaisical in the first half,

committing 21 of 31 total turnovers and going the final 3:08 without

a field goal. Yet, the Mustangs still came out victorious.

Saddleback had a shot to tie after senior Travis Winrow, who

scored 10 points, grabbed one of his four rebounds with six seconds

left after a missed free throw. Winrow made an outlet pass to Jesse

Alonso, but as the Roadrunners’ co-leading scorer (12 points along

with Demetrius May) set to fire the shot, the horn sounded and the

Mustangs breathed a sigh of relief.

“I just told (the Mustangs) that they showed the will to win,”

said Mesa Coach Bob Serven, whose team won for the second time in

three games. “There was no magical halftime talk. I thought our press

did a better job in the second half forcing (Saddleback) into some

mistakes and we were able to score some points.”

The Mustangs lit it up in the second half, shooting 59% (13 of 22)

and finished 21 for 42 (50%). Mesa outscored the visitors, 33-21, in

the final two quarters.

Mesa’s press forced the Roadrunners (7-13, 1-5) to commit five

turnovers in the first 1:54 of the second half as the Mustangs scored

six unanswered points to cut the 31-21 halftime deficit to 31-27.

Senior Danny Krikorian led the Mustangs with 16 points on 6-of-14

shooting and also dished out four assists while grabbing two

rebounds.

Mesa took its first lead since an 11-10 margin 4:41 into the game

when freshman Scott Knox found 6-foot-6 junior Marko Stankovic down

low for an easy bucket to make it, 37-36, with 1:45 in the fourth

quarter. Saddleback took a 40-39 lead at the end of three quarters.

The start of the fourth quarter signaled an increase in energy

from the Mustangs. They took the lead for good 43 seconds into the

final period when Stankovic put back a missed shot for a 41-40

cushion.

Sophomore Jeff Waldron tallied a team-high eight rebounds and

scored all six of his points in the second half, giving the hosts

needed rebounding in the final quarter before fouling out with 3:46

to play.

Stankovic stepped up to fill Waldron’s shoes, scoring another

layup on a pass by Brian Molina while grabbing all five of his

rebounds in the quarter. Stankovic collected 12 points on 5-of-6

shooting while Molina had three points, three steals and two assists.

“It hurt us when (Waldron) fouled out, but we weathered that storm

and scored some points,” Serven said.

With Mesa leading, 48-47, Ziad Pepic, who had three assists, took

an inbounds pass from Molina and quickly one-bounced the ball to a

cutting Knox on the left side of the hoop for a layup and a 52-47

lead with 3:08 remaining. Knox connected on two free throws later for

Mesa’s only points thereafter.

“Leading, 54-48, we just tried to spread out and make them foul

us,” Serven said.

Knox finished with 14 points (nine in the second half) along with

six rebounds and three assists while Tony Krikorian hit a

three-pointer for his only basket of the game.