Quick Hits:
- Yes, La Mirada ends their season with a 30-point loss to Cathedral, but it should not detract from the history they accomplished. Head coach Bryce Jones said it best: “One game does not define our season.” He’s right. The 2013-14 Matadores became the first team in history to make the state playoffs and also made just their third semifinals in the last 24 years.
- The Matadores actually came out with some fight. Anthony Newman scored the first four points and La Mirada took a 6-2 lead. You could immediately tell they were not intimidated by the No. 2 seeded Phantoms. A Lucio Bolado floater as the clock expired had the visitors down 17-16 after one period.
- The two big things that allowed the Phantoms to blow out the Matadores was three point shooting and Lucas Siewert. As a team, Cathedral drained 11 three pointers and six of them were from Siewert, who finished with a game-high 30 points. Siewert, a sophomore, hit three treys in the third quarter, the period Cathedral started to pull away.
- Siewert just continued to find himself wide open at times to drain his threes. After the game Jones told me they knew he liked to shoot from deep, but they didn’t know he could shoot that well.
- Cathedral was very consistent. Their scoring by period: 17, 17, 24 and 24.
- Junior bigs Kendall Lauderdale and Dezmon Murphy led the Matadores with 13 points each. Sophomore Vittorio Reynoso-Avila chipped in 12 points, 10 which came in the second half.
- La Mirada was very aggressive in attacking the basket early. In the first half they went to the line six times, led by Murphy who made three of those trips. All five of his first half points came from the charity stripe.
- The Matadores are a very long team thanks to the 6-foot-8 Lauderdale, the 6-foot-6 Murphy, the lanky 6-foot-4 Reynoso-Avila and the 6-foot-4 James Eubanks. But Cathedral was just bigger with the 6-foot-10 Siewert and 6-foot-11 Idrissa Diallo. Throw in power forward Jerome Bryant (6-foot-7) and this is a long team.
- Matadores fan should now be looking at next season and they should be excited. La Mirada will be even better. They return the combo of Lauderdale and Murphy, along with another year of experience for Reynoso-Avila and Newman. The future is bright at La Mirada.
