Sports

Girls Hoops: Muir Dominates Poly in Anticipated Match Up

Emoni Jackson scores 24 points to lead the Mustangs to a win over local powerhouse Poly

It’s a big jump between Division 5A and 3AA in the world of CIF-Southern Section girls basketball. Pasadena Poly certainly learned that lesson the hard way Saturday night against Muir.

Aside from star junior Michelle Miller, the Panthers looked in over their heads against a locked-in Mustangs squad that featured a star of its own in freshman Emoni Jackson.

While both players failed to disappoint individually (Miller scored 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds; Jackson finished 24 and 13) it was clear right from the opening tip that the Mustangs held an advantage in quickness and athleticism in addition to boasting the more complete squad. After a tight first quarter, Muir unleashed all of those advantages with its patented full court press to dominate the Panthers from start to finish en route to a 71-34 victory.

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“I think our press hurt them and they got tired,” Muir coach Gary Johnson said. “And so when they got tired, especially (Miller), we got a lot of scores off our transition game.”

The Mustangs dictated the game’s tempo with their defensive pressure. After every made basket, Muir attacked the inbounds pass and trapped whoever was the unlucky Panther with the ball. Against such an aggressive D, Poly struggled to get the ball past half court and committed seven turnovers in the quarter. The Panthers finished the game with 24 giveaways.

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“Their press was a little bit more than we could handle,” Poly coach Kim Weber said. “Muir's a great team. Those girls are athletic, strong and very well-coached.”

Those turnovers ignited Muir’s transition game and Jackson. Jackson scored six points in the quarter, using a strength and quickness that allowed her to evade the Panther defense and attack the rim for basket after basket.

“At our level we don't have anything like that right now,” Weber said.
“Emoni is amazing. She's their best player.”

Through one quarter, though, Miller had an answer for just about everything Jackson and the Mustangs threw at her. Miller scored her team’s first nine points of the game and finished the quarter with 10 as Poly trailed 15-12.

But one girl alone (even one as talented as Miller) isn’t enough to keep pace with the Mustangs as the second quarter proved. Muir began the second quarter with a 9-0 that ended when Poly’s Courtney Foster hit a bucket at the 3:56 mark of the quarter. The Mustangs then followed that run with a 10-0 burst to take a commanding 34-14 lead.

As was the case throughout the game, the Mustangs’ full court press drove their success. Muir forced eight more turnovers in the quarter, and when the Mustangs weren’t breaking out in transition their guards were dismantling Poly’s man-to-man defense in the half court with dribble drives to the basket.

Tahniya Sweatt finished with 15 points for the Mustangs, while Taylor Polk added 13 and Ahsia Owens scored 11.

After the game, Johnson seemed surprised that the Panthers elected to play a man-to-man defense over a zone, which most teams employ against his squad.

“(The Panthers) played hard and stayed in the man-to-man and that was good experience for the kids,” he said.

If the Panthers need to find any solace in their loss, they can point to the fact that they won’t have to worry about facing a team of Muir’s caliber again this year and that Miller didn’t back down from Saturday’s challenge.

Miller scored all 17 of her team’s points after halftime, including a 15-point explosion in the third quarter in which she hit four shots from downtown.

“She's amazing,” Weber said. “She can play on that team. She can play anywhere, and we're grateful to have her.”

For the Mustangs, they can use this win as a momentum builder as they head back to Pacific League play and face Glendale next Tuesday. The Nitros beat Muir 42-30 on Jan. 12.

“We play Glendale so that’s a grudge match right there,” Johnson said. “We’re going to come out strong. We’ve got (Sweatt) back, so I think we’re playing much better with (Sweatt) around. We’re going to press them just like we pressed them right here.”

Jackson hit her head after going up for a rebound in the fourth quarter and sat out the game’s final six minutes.


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