Mission Viejo pulls out victory in wild finish

MISSION VIEJO - The South Coast League title belongs to the Mission Viejo boys basketball team thanks to the long arm of center Isaac Neilson.

Neilson’s tip-in of a James Cramer miss as time expired Thursday night, gave the fourth-ranked Diablos (25-1, 7-1) a 58-57 road victory over No. 8 Capistrano Valley (20-6, 5-3).

However, the final play didn’t come without controversy. Video replay of the tip-in, courtesy of the Cox3 video truck, showed that a portion of the ball might have been over the cylinder when Neilson tipped it in. 

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“I stood on the block and I was hoping that either James (Cramer) would make the layup or I would get a tip-in,” Neilson said. “He missed and I was open enough to get the tip.”

All of this started with 3.7 seconds remaining in the game.

“Our plan was to contain and make them shoot a jump shot and we didn’t do that,” Capistrano Valley coach Brian Mulligan said. “I grabbed the guys as they were going out (after timeout) and I said I’ve said I’ve seen so many of these plays where the shot goes up and the tip-in wins it.

“The problem is, the guy who rotated to block the shot was Isaac’s man and they got the classic tip-in in the end.”

Mulligan said that from his angle, the ball appeared to be over the cylinder. The play happened on the other end of the court.

“That’s a bang-bang call for refs, I get that,” Mulligan said. “Maybe they could have talked about it. Now, that might have been crazy and brought the house down when they counted it … I don’t know. It was so close, that I would have liked them to give a little bit more thought, but again, that’s a call that different guys are going to make different ways.”

“You know what it is not a gigantic factor in the game. We went from what, 12 up to the point where they can tip it in … You don’t let that happen. You can’t let that happen.”

Capistrano Valley led 33-26 at halftime and opened the third quarter with seven consecutive points to build a 40-26 lead. A late 3-point field goal by Stephen Short put the Cougars up 54-46 entering the fourth.

Mission Viejo’s defensive pressure helped turn the tide and keep Capistrano Valley within striking distance. The Cougars scored just three points in the fourth quarter.

“Mission’s been through a bunch of these,” Mulligan said. “That’s the type of fire they’ve been playing with for about 10-12 games now. They’re used to it. We knew they were capable of it, we discussed it going into the fourth quarter and it was just they showed a lot of heart and we didn’t quite finish.”

Neilson finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots for the Diablos, who on the last night of the regular season, had all 14 guys play in the game. Even with the outright league title on the line.

“All yearlong, I’ve said we kind of had some intestinal fortitude,” Mission Viejo coach Troy Roelen said. “In my heart of hearts, I want to believe I did the right thing in playing all 14 guys tonight and I’m going to say that karma smiled on upon us by doing the right thing.

"I’m proud of it, everybody contributed and everybody can lay their hat on that."

Frank Randall led the Diablos with 16, including some big shots in the second half. Evan Zeller added 11 and Cramer 10 for the Diablos.

Chris Bench led the Cougars with 15. Mulligan credited Bench’s play on the night. Stephen Short scored 14.