WATSONVILLE — Driving layups, open 3-pointers, clean looks at the bucket in transition, Monte Vista Christian found the shots it wanted, but the points went missing.
The Mustangs were eliminated from the Central Coast Section Division IV playoffs in a 53-45 loss to Palma High in the second round of the tournament on Thursday night.
M.V.C. (15-9) started the fourth quarter down by one, but couldn’t get the shots to fall down the stretch. They scored just nine points in the frame on two field goal makes.
It was the theme of the night.
The Mustangs shot just 29 percent from the field, but hung around late behind their defense.
“They just made more layups we they did,” said interim head coach Rudy Gonzalez. “That’s how it goes. It’s basketball.”
The head coach of the junior varsity team, Gonzalez stepped in for second-year head coach Hasan Houston, who on Wednesday afternoon was arrested and charged for domestic battery.
The kids said they tried to rally around their coach, who is on a leave of absence until the situation is resolved, according to M.V.C. Headmaster Mitch Salerno.
“We came out here hoping to play for him,” said M.V.C. sophomore forward Andrew Lee. “Fought hard, but didn’t quite get the win.”
Lee had 11 points, eight rebounds and three blocks, including two big rejections in the fourth quarter that kept the Mustangs’ hopes of a comeback alive.
But senior forward Colin Neff hit a jumper to put Palma (14-12) up five with a little more than two minutes left and the Chieftains made their free throws to serve the Mustangs an icy dish of revenge.
The two teams split the Monterey Bay League Gabilan division season, with each winning at home.
“We’re really happy to get the payback from last game,” said Neff, who had a team-high 12 points to go along with five rebounds. “We’re glad to get our mojo back and hopefully we can keep making our run right now.”
Palma advances to play top-seeded Half Moon Bay High, the CCS D-IV runner-up last season, today at Hartnell College in Salinas. The game is set for a 1 p.m. tip.
Senior wing Aidan Ezeji-Okoye led M.V.C. with 15 points, and senior guard Miles Greene added 10 points. Senior center Lucas Schmidt dominated the boards, hauling in 17 rebounds, but the Chieftains teamed up defensively to limit him offensively.
The 6-foot-10 big set to play for NCAA Division I North Dakota next season had only three points.
“We got away from executing the way that we did the rest of the season,” Gonzalez said. “They executed really well in the fourth quarter and our shots didn’t fall. If we could execute a little better, the result might have been a little different.”
M.V.C. was up 5-0 to start, but trailed 13-10 after the first quarter.
Freshman guard Tanner Batt swished a 3-pointer late in the second to put M.V.C. up 23-22, and Ezeji-Okoye’s driving layup gave the Mustangs a 27-24 lead at the intermission.
Ezeji-Okoye nailed a 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the second half, but the Mustangs struggled shooting the ball from there.
They made only three field goals in the third, including Ezeji-Okoye’s 3.
It carried over into the final stanza.
“We struggled as a team,” Lee said. “There was no individual that fell down. We all fell together, and we’re all going to get up together.”
M.V.C. will graduate seven players that helped the team finish fourth in the MBL-G and advance to the playoffs for the ninth straight season: Daniel Glenn, Riley Kafka, David Alcantar, Brian Hanover, Greene, Schmidt and Ezeji-Okoye.
