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Sports

Boys Hoops: Muir Tops Santa Clara, Returns to CIF-SS Final

Mustangs will play for first section title since 1996.

This month hasn’t been easy for the Muir boys basketball team.

The Mustangs lost leading scorer DeShawn Hayes, who was dismissed for violating team rules, and fellow starter Tevin Polk to academic ineligibility.

And then worst of all, classmate and Muir football player Brandon Jackson was killed in a shooting two weeks ago.

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Through it all the Mustangs have hung together and it showed Friday night in a game played at Pasadena High School, as they knocked off Santa Clara (Oxnard) 66-62 to reach the CIF-Southern Section Division 5AA title game next Saturday against Flintridge Prep at the Meruelo Athletic Center at Mater Dei High School.

“The kids have just bonded together and worked really hard,” Muir coach Dr. Gamal Smalley said. “They fought really hard. They didn’t want to go home without winning this game. I have to tip my hat off to their hustle and desire.”

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The Mustangs will be attempting to win their fourth CIF-SS title and are making their first title game appearance since winning the Division 3AA title in 1996. Muir’s Jacque Vaughn-led side won a CIF title in 1993 and the Stacey Augmon-led Mustangs won a CIF title in 1986.

Muir (18-10) shook off a strong start by 16-time CIF champion Santa Clara to reach the final.

The Saints were led by the hot shooting of Bryce Kilmer, who had seven 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 24 points.

Kilmer hit a 3-pointer with 4:52 left in the second quarter to give Santa Clara a 28-22 lead. But Muir finished the first half on an 8-0 run with four of those points coming from Dion Nelson to give the Mustangs a 34-33 lead at the intermission.

Santa Clara (13-17) scored the first basket of the second half. But that was the last time the Saints would hold the lead.

Muir put together an 11-0 run in the third quarter that saw six different Mustangs score during the run.

Santa Clara fought back to cut the Muir lead to 47-42 at the end of the third quarter.

But every time the Saints fought back, the Mustangs answered.

“We had to try to give them different (defensive) looks. They’re a very impressive team,” Smalley said. “I could tell they did their homework so we had to switch it up quite a bit. We went man-to-man down the stretch there. We didn’t want to give them an easy opportunity to just walk up there and shoot. We tried to distract them and that seemed to work.”

Smalley said the team has dedicated the rest of the season to the memory of Jackson.

“A week ago Monday my practice was counseling, not basketball. There were a lot of tears and joy all at the same time,” Smalley said of dealing with his grieving players, some of whom had known Jackson since the third grade. “If you knew the young man, he was the same type of athlete that played with all heart and hustle.”

Sophomore Jelani Mitchell led Muir with 20 points and had eight rebounds. Nelson had 18 points, freshman Brian Carrier had nine points and 13 rebounds and Arlondo Daniels had eight points and five rebounds. Taturs Mayberry added six points, Justin Knowles had three and Michael Cockrell had two points. 

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