In dominating fashion, The La Mirada Matadores (10-5) bounced back and defeated the Cerritos Dons (2-11), 83-48.

The Matadores came out swinging offensively and laid down eight three’s in the first half alone, “When it goes in, we are a three-point shooting team, when it doesn’t go in it hurts us at times,” Coach Randy Oronoz of La Mirada put it.

Sophomore guard #3 Julien Gomez started the Matadores off with their first five points of the game. Gomez finished with 16 points in a complete performance.

Senior forward #13 Athan Sierra had a monstrous game finishing with 18 points as well including five three’s, four in the second quarter.

Senior guard #4 Sean Cervantes added 10 points to go along with a pair of flashy, no-look assists. He was controlling this game from top to bottom while he was in, with his superb effort on both sides of the court.

From there it was a collective team effort as La Mirada scored 47 points at the half. The Dons couldn't match the high-volume scoring and the Matadores ran away with it in the second half.

The second half featured a lot of the second team for the Matadores. Freshman guard #11 Tristan Partida had nine points, all of them coming from behind the arc. Junior forward #1 Michael Torres had nine points and was a force inside the paint for the Matadores. He provided a size advantage that Cerritos couldn’t match.

Defensively, the Matadores had arguably their best game. Limiting the Dons top scorer Junior guard #30 Shay Pema to only eight points. No Dons player touched double-digits in the points department as their top scorer was senior forward #34 Chase Rambaran with nine.

However, La Mirada lost the foul battle as they had an astonishing 20 fouls to Cerritos’ seven. That is something the Matadores must keep down when they play better opponents.

The La Mirada Matadores play next week on Monday 12/26, against the Riverside Poly Bears (9-5). Poly was in the 2021 CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs and are a formidable foe as they face off at the Damien Event Center at The Classic at Damien.

Meanwhile, the Cerritos Dons take on the Gahr Gladiators (3-8) on Thursday 12/22 at Gahr.