Westview ends Mission Hills’ winning streak at 48 league games – elcajon newson Elcajon News only

SAN MARCOS — The streak is over.

After 48 league wins in a row, the Mission Hills High School girls basketball team ran into a roadblock it couldn’t navigate Tuesday, dropping a hotly contested 54-53 Palomar League contest to Westview.

Mission Hills has won four straight league championships and nine of the last 10. The Grizzlies, ranked No. 38 in the state, have had 11 straight 20-win seasons.

“I’ve played on the varsity for four years and one of my goals was to beat Mission Hills,” said Westview senior forward Maren Zimmer. “This is really exciting.”

And the finish was exciting.

Westview (14-7, 5-0), ranked No. 4 in the county and No. 85 in the state, was ahead 2-0 before the game started as Sarah Heyh made a pair of free throws after No. 1-ranked Mission Hills (15-8, 4-1) was hit with an administrative technical foul.

Westview then roared ahead to a 27-10 lead early in the second quarter.

The Grizzlies finally caught the Wolverines at 46 on the first basket of the fourth quarter.

Westview recaptured the lead and was up 52-46 with 2:01 to play.

Mission Hills cut that to 54-53 with 22 seconds remaining and had the ball after grabbing the rebound off a missed free throw.

But three tries at a game-winning basket fell short.

“Our size creates matchup issues,” Westview coach Melissa Peng said of a team that boasts five players 5-foot-11 or taller. “We were able to do a lot of little things that winning teams do.

“The kids have really bought into what we’re preaching.”

Zimmer, who checks in at 5-11, led the Wolverines with 16 points, 12 rebounds and blocked a shot.

Mai Jacobson, a 6-1 junior, had 13 points, six rebounds and blocked three shots.

Heyn, the point guard, finished with 10 points and seven rebounds while Katie Graves, a 6-2 senior, had six points and six rebounds. Makena McClaughlin, a 5-11 junior, added six points and four rebounds.

“We knew that to beat a team as good as Mission Hills that we had to really focus,” Jacobson said. “We knew we couldn’t miss layups or shots around the basket.

“To beat Mission Hills in their gym is a huge confidence-builder.”

Mission Hills sophomore Bay Cordova led all scorers with 30 points. Kendall Nguyen added eight points and five rebounds, but Mission Hills was outrebounded 39-19 and lost despite forcing 26 Westview turnovers.

The Grizzlies turned the ball over just 11 times, but made just 8 of 34 3-point attempts.

Westview hosts Mission Hills on Feb. 7 in what figures to be a game that will decide the Palomar League title.

“The goal always was to win league,” Zimmer said. “That hasn’t changed.”