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Garry Slone (left) and Marlee Slone led Costa Mesa to a win Friday night. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Costa Mesa High School’s boys basketball team overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat Godinez 63-59 Friday night in the Empire League opener for both teams at Godinez.
Costa Mesa players and first-year coach Sean Comer looked at Friday’s game as a new start after the Mustangs went 5-13 in non-league play.
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“We talked to them about coming into league, and everybody is 0-0,” said Comer. “They (Godinez) came out here ready to play and I’m proud of our guys for matching their effort.”
Costa Mesa and Godinez are in a new-look Empire League which also includes Tustin, Calvary Chapel and Fullerton.
Godinez had what looked to be a comfortable lead at halftime, but Costa Mesa outscored the Grizzlies 18-6 in the third quarter to take a one-point lead and led by as many as five in the final stanza.
Junior Marlee Slone had 20 points and his brother senior Garry Slone 19 points and Kembe Howerton added 16 points to lead Costa Mesa. Godinez (7-12) was led by Jaiden Torres, who scored 19 points.
Marcus Posario added 11 points and Ricardo Molgado nine points for Godinez.
“They pushed the ball at us really hard and Jaiden got a little tired and when Dagyr (Young) got into foul trouble, that really hurt us him fouling out in that game in that situation; he’s so athletic and I think he’s going to get better and better,” said Godinez Coach Robert Morgan. “But they (Costa Mesa) played well, they hit free throws at the end and we missed seven free throws.
“They got the ball in the hands of the right kids who can score for them.”
The Grizzlies were without Young for most of the final quarter after he fouled out.
Costa Mesa came out fired up in the second half.
“We’re a resilient team, we find ourselves always having to fight back in that second half,” Comer said. “I think we have great starts in the second half and that’s what fuels us to get going and win those games. We make a lot of good adjustments, the boys buy in at halftime and we just fight hard in the second half.”
The game wasn’t decided until the final seconds.
Garry Slone made two free throws with 39 seconds left to put the Mustangs ahead 61-57. Torres gave Godinez a chance when he scored a basket with 34 seconds left to cut the lead to 61-59.
Torres missed the free throw, Costa Mesa rebounded and missed a shot at the other end, Godinez rebounded but turned the ball over.
Garry Slone then sank two free throws with 16 seconds to give the Mustangs a 63-59 lead and following a timeout, a Godinez shot fell off the rim as time expired.
“I thought it was an all-around impressive team win,” said Garry Slone. “We came down 11 points going into the third quarter and we came together instead of just imploding on each other.”
“We started off really slow, I ended up with two fouls and I was siting out most of the second quarter,” added Marlee Slone. “I knew we needed to pick it up starting in the second half and that’s what we did to finish out the game. We just wanted to start off with a win to keep going against Calvary (Chapel) because we know that’s one of our rivals and a really good team.”
The Slone brothers have led the way for Costa Mesa all season.
“They’ve been dominant handling the ball, breaking pressure, making sure we get that ball across half-court and get into our offense,” Comer said. “Those two guys have been solid, they got the ball in their hands a lot, we’re relying on them to not turn it overt and make a lot of decisions and they’ve been doing a heck of a job.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
