Boy Hoopsters Beat Carson

Junior guard Cole Feaster led all scorers with 17 points as the Mira Costa boys basketball team beat Carson, 58-47, Monday in their first game of the season in the Mira Costa Pacific Shores Tournament.

Feaster along with senior forward Karl Acres, who scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds, were too much for the clearly outmatched and depleted Carson roster of just six players.

“First games are always interesting,” said Mira Costa coach Jeff Amaral, who was coaching his first official game at the Mustang helm. “You come out with a lot of emotion and inevitably things are going to slow down a little bit, and they did tonight. They slowed us down and made a nice comeback but overall I was happy because this team played 32 minutes because this team is going to have to play 32 minutes.”

The Mustangs were leading 23-22 with under a minute remaining in the first half when Feaster scored two straight baskets to give Mira Costa a 27-22 halftime advantage. The Mustangs continued that run in the third quarter, outscoring the Colts, 14-3, to take their biggest lead of the game at 41-25 and put the game out of Carson’s reach.

“We knew that with only six players that they would eventually get tired,” said Acres, whose grandfather is legendary former Carson coach Dick Acres who won multiple Los Angeles City championships during the 1970s and 80s as the coach of the Colts. “So we wanted to come out and play hard and wear them down and I think we did that.”

For Acres, the basketball bloodlines run extremely deep. Not only was his grandfather a legendary local high school (twice named Daily Breeze Coach of the Year) and college coach (Oral Roberts University), his uncle Matt is the varsity assistant coach at Peninsula High School and his father Mark enjoyed a 13-year career in the NBA.

“I am aware that my grandpa was the coach at Carson and won championships,” Acres said. “But he doesn’t really talk about it; he just comes to every one of my games and supports me. My grandparents are the best.”

Mira Costa (1-0) also got some big contributions off the bench from forwards Oliver Mausner, who scored nine points and grabbed three rebounds, and Keith Waddell, who scored seven points to go along with four rebounds.

“I thought that we did a good job for our first game,” Feaster said. “I was a little off on offense but I think that overall for the first game we did pretty good.”

Guard Kevin Kim contributed five points while Cooper Pugnale added four points and Justin Strings scored two points to round out the Mustang scoring.

“We can go about nine or ten deep,” Amaral said of his team’s depth. “When we are at full strength we will play about 11 people, that’s our strength.”

The Mustangs were without the services of one of their key players, sophomore Chase Crandall who is coming back from an injury and who Amaral believes will play a big role for Mira Costa this season.

“Chase is still about two or three weeks away,” Amaral said of when he expects Crandall back. “He is a difference maker and he will be someone that we will count on heavily at some point this season.”

Mira Costa is back in action on Wednesday when they take on Pacifica Christian at 7:30 p.m. in Fisher Gymnasium.