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Tustin players and coaches celebrate league title and undefeated league run after Tuesday’s win. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Tustin High School’s boys basketball team had already clinched the outright Empire League title before it took the floor Tuesday night vs. a short-handed Costa Mesa team in the final game of the regular season
The Tillers still wanted to finish league with a perfect record and did so with a 64-42 victory at Costa Mesa.
The biggest cheers of the night from Tustin fans were for senior guard Daniel Molina, who sank 12 3-pointers breaking the previous record of nine set in 2004 by Danny Cavic. Molina, who has been an excellent 3-pointer shooter, took his game to new heights, scoring 37 points.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Tiller fans chanted “MVP” after Molina set the record in the third quarter.
He was mobbed by his teammates after the first timeout following the record three in third quarter. Molina had eight 3-pointers in the first half, three in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter.
“I hit 12 three’s, my teammates were passing me the ball and I was able to hit tonight,” Molina said. “I was feeling it from the beginning since I was warming up, I knew it was going to go in.”
Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer has seen this kind of effort from his Tustin team for most of the season en route to the program’s first league title since 2017.
“Obviously Daniel Molina had the hot hand,” he said. “He got us going and kept it going. Costa Mesa was short-handed but they battled, I liked the way they showed a ton of enthusiasm even though they were shorthanded. But to close out for our first league championship since 2017, we kept our focus, we called it an eight mile race and we finished the race.”
Molina has been solid all year.
“He’s made a big difference to our team, he opens up the defense and makes team play us honestly, he’s had a tremendous year,” Bossenmeyer said. “He’s a complete player, he’s solid on the defensive end, his play on the defensive end has been a big difference for us this year.”
Molina was the only Tiller in double figures but other players such as Ethan Contreras and Yuri Klines helped Tustin secure the title.
“I thought Ethan Contreras and Yuri Klines have been tremendous leaders throughout this entire league run,” Bossenmeyer said. “The leadership that Ethan and Contreras have shown has guided us.”
Tustin (22-6, 8-0) led from the start and held a 35-19 lead at halftime and eventually moved out to a 55-26 edge going into the final stanza.
“It was very happy and a lot of joy, but we got CIF coming up,” said Contreras of the league title. “The last couple years I’ve been a part of CIF it’s always been one game or two games and then go home. That’s not the plan senior year, we want to try and make it go as far as it can go and just keep building our team bonding who we are consistently day after day.
“Obviously, it’s CIF, it’s only one game or go home so we’re just trying to give it all in CIF.”
As for Molina’s amazing effort, Contreras said, “he told me, ‘I’m going for that record tonight,’ and I just gave him the ball every time, and they were playing zone so it was a very loose defense and a lot of open looks he could get in the two-three zone.”
Costa Mesa (10-17, 4-4) was led by Ternandez Calloway Jr., who scored 17 points.
The Mustangs were missing three starters and had only one back-up on the bench.
OC Sports Zone was referred to the Costa Mesa administration for clarification on why the starters were out but none were made available to speak after the game. No coaches were available either.
The Mustangs were in the running for the two remaining CIF playoff berths.
For video of Molina’s record setting 3-pointer go to X (@ocsportszone)
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com