Capuchino girls' basketball races past Aragon

But the reality was far different than the perception. The Dons are young, the Mustangs are loaded and it resulted in a 69-42 Capuchino win. The Mustangs led by 10, 19-9, after the first quarter and following a 23-point second period, Cap led 42-26 at halftime. The Mustangs then outscored the Dons 22-9 in the third quarter, building a 64-35 lead going into the final eight minutes.

Despite his team’s fifth straight lopsided win, Capuchino head coach Steve Hoff believed his team could have been better.

“We played OK. I don’t think we played our best game,” Hoff said. “We were sloppy with the ball.”

With so many scorers on the floor for the Mustangs, Aragon simply could not keep up offensively. And if Hoff thought his team was sloppy with the ball, the Dons were worse as they turned the ball over 20 times — including 11 in the fourth quarter, which nearly equaled the team’s scoring output of 12 in the period.

“We look like we’re still in preseason,” said Aragon head coach Sam Manu. “These are the type of games I love to play. It shows what we have to work on.”

For Aragon, that would be rebounding, which has been the Dons’ calling card in recent seasons. But they struggled to contain Cap on the board, where the Mustangs outrebounded the Dons 34-28 and held a 9-6 advantage on the offensive glass.

That number is closer than what it really was as the Mustangs held a 28-14 through three quarters.

“[Cap does] what we love to do — rebound,” Manu said. “They were aggressive on the boards. We’re learning to do that.”

The Mustangs’ aggressive rebounding and hounding defense resulted in a number of easy buckets. When they did set up in a halfcourt offense, it enabled their 3-point shooters to get looks. No matter who was shooting for Mustangs, chances were good the ball was going in. Capuchino shot 64% from the floor through the first three quarters, going 27 for 42. A 1-for-11 fourth quarter brought that percentage down to 52% for the game, but the Mustangs had the game well in hand by that point.

Capuchino’s Hailey Hoff scored a game-high 24 points, knocking down three 3-pointers in the process. Jaisa Gamble added 16 for the Mustangs, while Kiki Afeaki chipped in with 15.

Aragon was led by Jordan Beaumont, who scored 14 points. Lala Lautaimi added 12 for the Dons.

Despite the final score, the game got off to a choppy start as both teams struggled to put the ball in the net. Grace Nai opened the scoring to give Aragon its only lead of the game, 2-0. It took nearly two minutes for the Mustangs to respond, but when Afeaki used a spin move in the paint to free herself up for a layup, it started an 8-0 run.

A Nai press-breaking layup briefly halted the Capuchino run, but the Mustangs responded by scoring 11 of the next 16 points to lead 19-9 after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, both teams got their offenses going as the teams combined for 40 points.

But the game turned when Lautaimi sat for the first four minutes of the period — the Dons only go about six deep right now — and the Mustangs, who only use about seven players consistently, got into a rhythm. Hailey Hoff started the heat up, scoring 11 of her 24 in the quarter. When she drained her first 3 of the game right before the half, it opened up a 42-26 advantage for the Mustangs.

Capuchino all but put the game away in the third. A Crystle Gumban layup put the Mustangs up 20, 53-33, with 2:49 left in the quarter and it ignited a 13-2 run to end the period with Cap leading 64-35. A Hailey Hoff 3 to open the fourth gave the Mustangs a 32-point lead, 67-35, and the final few minutes featured the reserves for both teams.

“Defensively, we played better in the second quarter than we did in the first, and then we played better in the third than in the second,” Coach Hoff said of his team’s ability to pull away. “Our defense ramped up (throughout the game).”