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La Mirada High senior Jael Arreguin takes one of her 10 shots in the second half against Dominguez High last Friday as the Matadores clinched at least a share of the Mid-Cities League title with a 54-45 win. Arreguin scored a team-high 13 points and had four assists, four rebounds and two steals. PHOTO BY CAROL EMMERLING.
February 3, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
La Mirada High senior Jael Arreguin has seen the highs and lows of the girls basketball program during her four years on the varsity team. But when the Matadores rallied to knock off Dominguez High last Friday, she was full of tears, and for a good reason.
Arreguin kick started an 8-0 run to end the game and helped give La Mirada a 54-45 victory over the Dons, clinching at least a share of what is presumed to be the program’s first league title. Multiple sources dating back to the 1986-1987 season indicate that La Mirada never won a Suburban League title through the 2021-2022 season. The program has been in the Mid-Cities League since the 2022-2023 campaign.
“It’s surreal,” she said. “Playing since my freshman year, we weren’t as good of a team. We were losing almost every game, and this year, we’re league champs. It’s like a perfect ending; happily ever after.”
For head coach Victoria Luong, she was just satisfied to see how proud the girls were of themselves when that buzzer sounded with triple zero’s on the clock.
“At halftime, I told the girls…they’ve heard me say the same things for all 25 games this season, and for four years,” said Luong. “It’s like a broken record, and I keep in telling them the same thing. Now you just have to execute it. It’s the second to the last regular season game and they just had to come out. I think they finally realized that [I was right], and I think, them actually proving to themselves, that they could do it was a big moment for us.”
The game was divided into three parts, the last being the 8-0 scoring spree over the final 2:19 of the game which nearly mirrored how the contest began as Dominguez raced to an 8-2 lead within the first two and a half minutes. In between, neither team held a lead greater than three points with four lead changes in the second and third quarters.
“We told them, against a good team, you can’t start off slow,” said Luong. “It was simple mistakes: turnovers, not getting back on defense, little things…and they just weren’t there. [They] had all this time to get [their] head into the game and it took them a minute before they realized they had to pick it up now before it gets further.”
La Mirada went up 21-18 with 5:01 left in the first half before Jocelyn Luis and Mya Harris had consecutive baskets to give the Dons the lead. Moments later, Kayla Scott gave Dominguez a 25-22 lead before Arreguin had her first theft of the game, then fed a pass to sophomore Jordin Shaw who scored. With 11.8 seconds left in the half, senior Hailey Medrano’s pass to senior Emily Gonzalez gave the Matadores (15-10, 8-1) a 26-25 halftime lead.
“I did let my nerves get to me in the beginning,” said Arreguin. “But once I got into the game, I just had to wipe my mind blank, and I focused on energy with my teammates and just the bond we’ve created over the years.”
In La Mirada’s 59-47 win at Dominguez (21-4, 7-2) on Jan. 15, the Dons were without the services of Scott, their leading scorer. In her absence, Mya Harris picked up the slack and scored 23 points. In the first half last Friday, Scott’s presence was felt as she scored 10 points while Harris added nine points.
“That was different, not knowing [Scott’s play],” said Luong. “I felt [Harris] was a lot stronger. She’s a freshman, she’s taller and she’s fierce. Just by stats, we knew she was the leading scorer, but even offensively, [Harris] was strong.”
“Dominguez is a great team; aggressive, and they have some really tall girls which we’re not really skilled in that category,” chuckled Arreguin. “But Dominguez is a great team and super aggressive, and I admire that about them.”
La Mirada took its second three-point lead 71 seconds into the third quarter when Arreguin scored off her own offensive rebound and two minutes later, senior Destiny Elmore made it 30-27 before the Dons took the lead with two straight baskets, then opened a three-point advantage on a basket from Ngozi Okoye with 3:01 remaining in the stanza.
But here came La Mirada with a three-pointer from Elmore and a basket from senior Nayeli Tamayo to take the lead again with 42. 5 seconds left in the third quarter. The final lead change of the game was on the last basket of the stanza, an offensive putback from senior Simran Sahota, making it 37-36. After that, there would be three ties within the first three minutes of the fourth quarter.
Even though the Matadores had the lead for most of the third quarter, it wasn’t the best for Arrequin, who missed three of four shots, turned the ball over five times, had two rebounds and an assist. But the team’s leading scorer turned it around in the fourth quarter with seven points and ended the game with 13 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.
“Just in the fourth quarter, I really knew I had to lock in; forget about the rest of the game and forget about my mistakes,” said Arreguin. “That’s what I’ve always been taught as a player; next play mentality. So, I really tried to go into the game with that.”
“If you look at our stats from our first round [game] versus Dominguez, I think she blew up in the fourth quarter,” said Luong of her team captain. “I think she had 10 points in the fourth quarter. She didn’t score at all in the second quarter [in this game], and in the third quarter had only had one basket.”
Both teams traded baskets in the first 5:06 of the fourth quarter but the difference for the Matadores came when Shaw nailed her lone three-pointer with 4:05 left, making it 44-41. And with a one-point advantage, Arreguin scored with 2:19 remaining, making it 48-45, then 76 seconds later, she stole the ball from Dariya Snyder and scored, making it 52-45. She and Shaw would sink free throws in the final 22.3 seconds of the game.
“This is exactly how we wanted it to end,” said Arreguin. “We worked so hard to be here; that’s what I always tell the team. We worked to be here; to be in this moment, and this is where we need to keep pushing and keep fighting.”
Shaw would also score 13 points with four rebounds, four assists and three steals while Elmore pitched in with 10 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals. Gonzalez led La Mirada with 10 rebounds and scored half a dozen points while Tamayo came off the bench to add eight rebounds and five points.
La Mirada can clinch the title outright on Wednesday with a win against Norwalk High or a Dominguez loss against fifth place Bellflower High. La Mirada had its way against Norwalk on Jan. 17, cruising to a 68-17 victory.
“We definitely are not [overlooking Norwalk],” said Luong. “I tell the girls every game, they can have some player that I didn’t know about come in, or we can have an off day where we aren’t hitting baskets. I tell them we have to come out strong and be ready for it. Even though we had a big win against Norwalk last time, I never have the same expectations in the second round.”
