Girls Hoops: Sloppy Muir Advances to Round 2

Muir girls basketball coach Gary Johnson wasn’t happy — that much was clear.

Throughout the second quarter Johnson sat on the Muir bench shaking his head at the Mustangs uneven play against Arlington (Riverside) in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 3AA playoffs. And though Muir never trailed en route to a 56-42 win Thursday night, Johnson still wasn’t pleased with his squad’s performance after the game.

“We played sloppy,” Johnson said. “We played very sloppy. I was disappointed — I’ll put it that way. I know the score, we won.

“ … Still disappointed in our play, in our offense. We didn’t set up the ball, we were too impatient. But we got out with a victory. We’re going to have to make a lot of adjustments for the next round.”

The seventh-seeded Mustangs (20-7) certainly got off to a decent start on offense. On their first two possessions they dumped the ball down into the paint to freshman Emoni Jackson, who quickly posted up her defender and scored an easy basket. 

But Muir was unable to sustain its early momentum, and for the rest of the game the Mustangs were out of sorts on the offensive end. They struggled to establish their presence in the post, they committed numerous turnovers and they took bad shots. 

When asked if anything worked on offense, Johnson simply responded “nothing.”

There was one area, however, in which the Mustangs excelled: defense. They forced 25 turnovers on the night, and their pressure D harassed Arlington (13-14) into a terrible shooting night.

Muir held the Lions without a field goal for the first 7:27 of the second quarter as the Mustangs turned a 15-14 lead at the end of the first period into a 12-point advantage at halftime.

Arlington shot 16-for-42 for the game and was led by Hannah Allec’s 10 points.

“It was all the defense,” Johnson said.

Seven Mustangs recorded at least two steals, and Tahniya Sweatt finished with a team-high of four. Sweatt also scored a game-high 14 points — not a bad performance from a girl who was not at 100 percent during the game.

Johnson said that Sweatt threw up right before tip-off. 

Jackson finished the game with 13 points and six rebounds for the Mustangs, while sophomore Jordan Jackson and senior Ahsia Owens each scored nine points.

The Mustangs move on to face the winner of Thursday's No. 11 Righetti-Lakeside matchup. The second round game is scheduled for Saturday at 7 p.m. at a site to be determined.

In practice on Friday, though, the Johnson will have the Mustangs working on their offense, which will have to improve if they hope to mount a deep playoff run.

“We’re got to work on being patient on offense,” Johnson said.