Girls Hoops: Muir Hammers Arcadia

The Muir girls basketball team continued its hot play of late, beating Arcadia 59-34 on Tuesday. Emoni Jackson turned in a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) while Tahniya Sweatt scored a game-high 19 points to help avenge the Mustangs’ loss in their first meeting with Arcadia.

“We didn’t have Tahniya the first time we played them,” Muir coach Gary Johnson said. “She’s the key to our offense. She and Jordan (Jackson) shot the ball great tonight.”

The Apaches (12-11, 5-8 in the Pacific League) were hard-pressed to keep up with the Mustangs, but they did their best behind some remarkable shooting by Julianna Okamoto. Okamoto led the team with 16 points on five 3-pointers.

“She had a lot of shots go in and out so maybe she could have scored more,” Arcadia coach Don Young said. “I can’t put any blame on her for her missed 3-pointers because a lot of times that was the only shot we could get and she was the only one hitting them.”

Muir played suffocating defense in the first quarter behind Emoni Jackson’s strong play in the paint. She scored six points alone in the first quarter, while the Apaches managed just two as a team.

Muir’s lead increased in the second quarter when Tyler Polk drove past Arcadia’s defense and drew a foul on consecutive possessions, making both free throws. Okamoto then got her offense going by dribbling the length of the court for a layup and adding a 3-pointer on the next Apache possession to make the score 23-16.

Arcadia took a 10-point deficit into halftime, but it was all Muir (18-7, 10-3) in the third quarter. Jordan Jackson opened the quarter with a 3-pointer and then made a steal and an assist to Ahsia Owens.

Okamoto shortened the lead to nine points with a 3-pointer, but Muir then went on an 18-2 run. In a key sequence, Owens hit another 3-pointer and then tipped in a rebound off a teammate’s miss. She then stole an Arcadia pass and threw an assist to Jackson on the other end.

Sweatt and Jackson hit 3-pointers for Muir in the fourth quarter while Okamoto hit another 3-pointer for Arcadia, but the game’s outcome had already been decided.

Muir faces cross-town rival Pasadena on Thursday, while Arcadia will play its season finale at Crescenta Valley.