Senior twins star as Mission Prep girls secure lopsided win over Morro Bay
Mission Prep and Morro Bay high schools faced off in girls basketball Tuesday — bringing together two familiar faces in coaches Cary Nerelli and Alex Engel.
Nerelli, the longtime Morro Bay coach who now leads the Royals, was once Morro Bay Coach Engel’s teacher.
Another interesting twist included the presence of two sets of Royals twins, seniors Keahi “KK” Guy and Makanani (Maka) Guy, and sophomores Madison and Riley Eckler.
The game itself was dominated by Mission Prep (11-8, 3-3 Mountain League), which won 46-23 after jumping out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
The Royals smothered Morro Bay with trap defense, and the Pirates’ (10-11, 1-5 Mountain) shots weren’t falling.
“I was really happy with our effort all night long,” said Nerelli, a 1965 graduate of the SLO school then called Mission Central Catholic High School. “Sometimes we get a little anxious. We’ve really tried to work on is disciplined aggression. And we’re making that progress.”
Maka Guy scored 16 points, and junior Gwen Nelson added 13 for the Royals. Mary Marsalek scored seven points, and KK Guy had six, adding tough defense and good ball handling.
For the Royals, Ella Lobos had seven, Violet Pace had six points and 5-10 freshman Makenna Freitas added five.
Mission Prep brings experience
The Royals have a balanced scoring attack on the season, with an experienced team led by KK Guy (11.4 points per game), Maka Guy (9.6 points), Nelson (10.4 points, 8.3 rebounds) and senior Lillie Parish (8.3 points, 7.3 rebounds).
Nerelli said the Guy twins, both four-year varsity stalwarts, see each other very well on the court, and the team bond and chemistry is very strong.
“These girls all like each other and hang out with each other, and that helps on the court,” Nerelli said.
KK Guy said it has been “a rewarding experience because I’ve been playing with all these girls for a really long time, so it’s really nice to finish out everything” as a senior.
Maka Guy added of her senior campaign: “I started with the girls that I’m now finishing it with, and I think that I’m really going to miss playing with them.”
The sisters and their teammates have four league games left and then begin playoffs to keep their high school season alive.
“We’re entering the second half of season, so we’re ready to get at it, and finish strong,” KK Guy said.
Nerelli said his team isn’t far off from a better Mountain League record, after narrowly falling to Arroyo Grande 46-44 and losing to Orcutt Academy 41-39.
After big games earlier this season, 5-foot-11 junior standout Violet Pace was limited against Mission Prep. Pace poured in 29 points against Atascadero and 25 versus Santa Maria.
Morro Bay looks to improve
Engel said his team will need to bounce back with a stronger effort as well as execution on defense.
“They out-hustled us,” Engel said. “They played harder than us. They wanted it more. It was just pretty much that simple. In the first half, they built a 20-point lead and we couldn’t come back.”
The Pirates moved up to the Mountain League and face tougher competition than they encountered last year in the Sunset League, where they posted an 8-2 league mark.
“It is definitely more challenging (in the Mountain League),” Engel said. “Playing against teams that are in higher divisions and bigger schools, that’s more challenging. Hopefully we can learn from it and take something in the playoffs and build off the competition, because the reality is that the teams we’re playing right now are realistically better teams than what we will actually see in our own playoff bracket (in CIF-Central Section).”
Engel said that Pace and point guard Zoe Fitzwater have been among the top players for the Pirates this season.
Morro Bay lost three key seniors to graduations from last year’s team in Fiona Durham, Taylor Morrison and Georgie Wheeler.
Morro Bay opens a four-game homestand as the Pirates face Arroyo Grande on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Mission Prep next faces St. Joseph on the road on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 10:19 PM.
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