Costa Mesa makes history and advances to first CIF final with 60-58 win over No. 2 Valley Torah

Costa Mesa’s Nathan Shipper (left) and Aiden Spallone helped their team reach the CIF finals. (Photo Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone)

Christian Dasca’s basket with less than a minute to go proved to be the game-winner as the Costa Mesa High boys basketball team knocked off No. 2 seeded Valley Torah 60-58 Friday afternoon in a CIF Division 5AA semifinal playoff game at Costa Mesa High.

The No. 5-seeded Mustangs (15-8) advance to next Wednesday’s CIF final for the first time in school history and will play Santa Ana Calvary Chapel Wednesday night. Calvary Chapel won the other semifinal defeating AGBUCP 43-40. Calvary Chapel will be the home team.

With the scored tied at 58-58, Dasca drilled a jumper from the top of the key with 59 seconds remaining to give the Mustangs a 60-58 lead.

The Costa Mesa defense stiffened to hold off the Wolfpack in the frantic final seconds.

With 14 seconds remaining, Valley inbounded the ball under the Mustangs basket. The Wolfpack had two shots within the lane that were just off the mark and after a wild scramble a third shot from 25 feet that came up short, giving Costa Mesa the win and a trip to the finals. 

“My heart was pounding and I held my breath when their final shots were in the air,” said Costa Mesa Coach Jesse Mercado. “We were behind in all of our playoffs games, and I credit our practices and our conditioning. I think it made the difference. I’ve told our players all along, ‘big players make big plays’ and we made the big plays when we needed to. We got great guard play and Blake Wolf got some huge rebounds for us.

“I’ve been an assistant coach for 18 years and this will be my first trip to the CIF finals as a head coach. We’re all embracing it.” 

Aiden Spallone led Costa Mesa with 20 points and Dasca poured in 15 points as the Mustangs extended their winning streak to six games. Costa Mesa has won 10 of its last 11 and 14 of 16. Costa Mesa finished in second place in the Orange Coast League this season and beat St. Monica’s Academy, Hawthorne and El Monte in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

“This means the world to us going to a CIF final,” said Spallone, a junior guard. “Christian hit a big shot at the end and we played lockdown defense. I think we showed a lot of heart. It’s so exciting. It’s the first for me to go to a CIF final, the first time for our coach as a head coach, and the first time for our school to go to the finals.”

The Wolfpack built a 43-35 lead after David Paz’s basket with 5:02 to play in the third quarter and the Mustangs appeared to be in jeopardy of falling further behind. However, Costa Mesa, sparked by Gio Quero, Wolf, Spallone and Dasca went on a blistering 14-5 run to close the quarter and take a 49-48 lead at the end of three periods. Wolf and Quero finished with nine and seven points respectively.

“Our coach runs the heck out of us at practice and that was factor today,” said Wolf. “Our conditioning made a difference and we’ll be back on this floor tomorrow running 5s (laps on the court) again. I can’t explain how I feel, it’s the first time in the history of the school, we’re so excited to be going to the finals.”

Nathan Shipper ignited another Mustangs’ rally with a pair of 3’s early in the fourth quarter. His 3-pointer at the 6:23 mark upped Costa Mesa’s lead to 55-50. But Valley roared back and retook the lead on a 3 by Noam Mayovhas with 1:43 left in the game. The Mustangs kept their poise and Dasca hit a free throw and Shipper sunk another huge basket to tie the score at 58 with a 1:25 remaining, setting the stage for Dasca’s heroics and the Mustangs defense final stance.

“This is really exciting,” said Shipper, who scored nine points. “We brought a lot of energy, the guys on the bench were cheering us on every play and that gave us energy and the crowd was loud and unbelievable. I think their legs we a little tired in the final minutes of the game and we had an advantage.”

The game got off to fast start as both teams displayed excellent passing and impressive play in transition. Alon Yehezkel’s basket with 10 seconds to go in the opening quarter gave the Wolfpack a 22-16 lead after the first 8 minutes of play. Valley extended its lead to 26-19 following a basket by Johnny Dan with 4:37 left in the half.

However, the Mustangs got two field goals by Spallone and one by Quero in the final 90 seconds of the first half to cut the Valley lead to 33-31 at intermission.

The Wolfpack, despite having an enrollment of only 100 students and being forced to play several of their games outdoors this season, won the Heritage League title and finish the season at 14-2.

“They really hurt us in the third quarter when they scored 18 points and they caused us to have some miscommunication,” said Valley Coach Lior Schwartzberg.

Paz led Valley with 15 points, Dan scored 13 points, Mayovhas added 11 points, and Alon Yehezkel scored 10 points for the Wolfpack. Valley defeated Bolsa Grande and Nordhoff in the second and third rounds of the playoffs, following a first round bye.

—Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone