Road Warriors: Mission Prep girls basketball running up scores and miles in playoffs

By the time the Mission Prep girls basketball team arrived home on Thursday morning, it was 2 a.m. The team returned from a trip to Loma Linda Academy in San Bernadino, a 500-mile round trip. In total, the team has traveled about 1,100 miles in the past week.

But they have something to show for it — two road wins in the CIF-Southern Section 5AA playoffs and a spot in the semifinals Saturday at Oxford Academy.

After finishing in second place in the PAC-8 during the regular season with an 11-3 record against teams in higher divisions, the Royals have blown through the lesser competition in the playoffs. The team’s average margin of victory is 35 points. Wednesday’s win over Loma Linda was the closest score yet, 44-25.

First year-coach Andrew Richardson has Mission Prep winning with defense, but every detail counts, even the movies the team watches on the long bus rides.

“We have been watching Mighty Ducks 1 and 2,” Richardson said. “They are not huge fans, but through the first two we have won, so.”

“He watches Mighty Ducks,” Jennifer “Boo” Laird joked during practice on Thursday. “Every time he puts it on we all chant ‘no!’ ”

During the trips, while Richardson watches Gordon Bombay teach the Ducks the Flying V, the Royals lounge in the back of the bus listening to music. But when the game starts, the Royals have been speeding past their opponents.

“At the beginning of the games, it’s pretty close, but by they end we just kill everyone because because we are so well-trained,” Laird said.

Jennifer, along with her sister Noelle and Jacqueline San Jule, form the Big Three for the Royals. Noelle, a 5-foot-11 senior, leads the team is scoring and rebounding with 10 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. San Jule runs the point.

“Jacqueline is really our heart and soul right now,” Richardson said of his senior point guard averaging 3.4 assists per game. “I would say she is the best pure point guard in the area.”

San Jule is playing in her first playoffs. Her first two seasons on varsity, the Royals didn’t qualify for the postseason and last year San Jule broke her collarbone in the final regular season game.

“It just feels so good,” said San Jule, who is second on the team in scoring with about nine points per game. “Every year we have just been making it further and further and nothing feels better. We are so confident we can go all the way.”

Mission Prep likes to get the ball in the hands of junior Jennifer, too. The younger Laird sister has shown the ability to slash to the rim and be a defensive stopper all season. Richardson said that playing against teams like PAC 8 co-champions Arroyo Grande (2AA) and Righetti (3A semifinalist) all season has prepared the team in the weaker 5AA.

“During the regular season, we are getting ready and primed up in playoffs,” Richardson said. “Some of the teams we are playing are 21-3 but their strength of schedule is way below ours.”

So far, Mission Prep has overwhelmed teams with defensive pressure, and Richardson said the team still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve that Oxford (24-3, 12-0 Academy) hasn’t seen yet.

“Andrew ingrained into us that we can run any defense and still be successful instead of just sticking to a man-to-man defense or zone,” Noelle said.

“Honestly, we are one of the poorest shooting female teams that I’ve seen, but we play defense,” Richardson said.

Mission Prep will watch the third installation of the Mighty Ducks Trilogy, D3, on the drive down Highway 101 to face Oxfoard Academy (just outside Anaheim) on Saturday. The movie is about a Minnesota academy with hockey players from affluent backgrounds and a team that wins using defense. Seems fitting.

Maybe life will imitate art.

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Road Warriors: Mission Prep girls basketball running up scores and miles in playoffs."