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Sports

Mount Miguel Girls Reach 10th Straight Hoop Final

Myishia Watkins' 15-point fourth quarter helps the Matadors overcome a 10-point deficit with a 17-3 run down the stretch.

Senior guard Myishia Watkins scored 15 of her game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter to lead host Mount Miguel back from a 10-point deficit to a 69-65 CIF San Diego Section Division III semifinal victory over Mission Bay Tuesday night in Spring Valley.

Watkins scored the final 10 points for Mount Miguel (22-7), which advances to Saturday’s Division III finals against Cathedral Catholic (18-12) at the University of San Diego’s Jenny Craig Pavilion. The Dons upset top-seeded Our Lady of Peace 65-49 to reach the title bout, which tips off at 1 p.m.

This marks the 10th consecutive season Mount Miguel’s girls basketball team has reached the section finals. The Matadors have captured three Division II titles and two Division III crowns. Mount Miguel is the defending Division III champion.

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“It’s a good feeling to be going back to the CIF finals again,” said Watkins, who nailed seven of 11 field goals and 10 of 12 free throws against Mission Bay (21-9).

The Matadors trailed 62-52 with 5:46 remaining before they outscored Mission Bay 17-3 the rest of the way.

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“They (Mission Bay) were doing a lot of trash talking about that time,” Watkins said. “But we don’t let trash talking get to us. We just play our game.”

Mission Bay’s 65 points is the most scored by a San Diego team against coach Robbie Sandoval’s Matadors this year.

“To be honest, they should have no way scored that many points against us,” Sandoval said. “Going into the game we talked about not turning the ball over and not giving up offensive rebounds.”

Mount Miguel faltered in both areas. The Matadors committed 25 turnovers and Mission Bay cleared 17 offensive rebounds.

“That really killed us tonight,” Sandoval said. “Fortunately, Myishia (5-foot-4) played big for us when the game was on the line.”

Watkins hit a soft-touch jumper driving the key to break a 65-65 tie with 55 seconds remaining. After Mount Miguel missed four consecutive free throws during the ensuing seconds, Watkins sealed the deal by sinking a pair of free throws with 1.5 seconds left.

Senior wing Danielle Miller also came up big for the Matadors, finishing with 24 points, 10 rebounds and six steals.

 Mission Bay          11      17      21      16    –   65

Mount Miguel     13      19      14      23   –   69

Mission Bay scoring: B. Solomon 21, Burton 15, Cannon 14, Dennis 9, Graham 6.

Mount Miguel scoring: Watkins 26, Miller 24, Young 17, Jones 2.

Special to Patch.com from East County Sports.com

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