CIF-SS DIV. 3 BOYS BASKETBALL SEMIFINALS: Gahr squanders 11-point first half lead, unable to overcome Aliso Niguel’s hot shooting

February 22, 2026

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X

ALISO VIEJO-Gahr High needed to play a near perfect CIF-Southern Section Division 3 semifinal game if it wanted to advance to the championship game for the fifth time in school history. And for nearly the first 14 minutes of its game against Aliso Niguel High last Friday night, the Gladiators were hanging with the Wolverines, dodging serious foul trouble and building an 11-point lead.

But the hosts were shooting at will in the second half, reclaiming the lead and making sure Gahr would not stage a comeback. When the dust had settled, Aliso Niguel had rallied for a 66-59 victory to advance to the school’s second trip to the divisional finals.

“When you get this deep in the playoffs, it’s going to come down to discipline and execution,” said Gahr head coach Marcus Girley. “I just thought in the third quarter, we just got disconnected and disjointed and just kind of played bad basketball for a quarter. You can’t afford [to do] that against a well-coached team like that.”

The Wolverines went on a 10-2 run over the final 2:14 of the first half, including a steal and basket from Miles Iribarne with 3.4 seconds left for his only points of the game. But the 11-point lead wasn’t the only story of the first half. Senior Harshveer Shergill, one of the team’s top rebounders, picked up two fouls before the midway part of the first quarter and his third infraction with 1:04 left in the half.

He would be relegated to the bench for the final 4:14 of the opening stanza and most of the second half, ending with four rebounds, all coming in the first quarter. But his replacement, 6’9” senior Makhi Montgomery, who scored a career-high 20 points against Woodbridge High in the quarterfinals, picked up a pair of fouls in the first half. In fact, Gahr had 10 fouls before halftime as opposed to Aliso Niguel’s four.

“We knew that Aliso pretty much runs five guards and wings, and we knew that would be an issue in space,” said Girley. “I just think ultimately our bigs didn’t trust themselves. Instead of being confident in that if I make a mistake, at least I [went] hard, they kind of were in between and they kind of kept getting caught in no man’s land.”

Adding insult to injury was the non-factor of junior Jaylen Maxwell, who strained his Achilles slightly in the second quarter against Woodbridge High in the quarterfinals but continued to play through it. He started against the Wolverines but took four shots from the field and did not score.

With all that going on, Gahr bounced back from the domination of Jay Keys, who scored 10 points in the first quarter, and went on a 10-0 run in the opening minutes of the second quarter to turn a 17-12 deficit into a 22-17 advantage. The momentum continued as senior Kingston Nathaniel completed a three-point play with 3:43 remaining in the half and sophomore Arien Cruz-Davis sank the team’s lone three-pointer of the stanza to make it 28-19 with 3:11 remaining in the first half.

Moments later, baskets from senior Austin Woon, who finished with a season-high nine points, and Shergill, gave the Gladiators their 11-point lead. But Shergill picked up his third foul 13 seconds after his last basket, in which Wyatt Richmond completed the three-point play. Then Richmond hit a three-pointer with 28.9 seconds left in the half.

“We got a big lead, got a few defensive lapses in our rotations; guys left their feets,” said Girley. “Offensively, I felt we kind of got a little bit robotic instead of getting to our reads. That comeback at the end of the second quarter…I think guys got a little bit anxious towards the end.”

The Wolverines continued that momentum into the third quarter as it was the Jayden Mysin show. He was four of seven from the field in the stanza, scoring nine points as Aliso Niguel led 52-46 entering the fourth quarter. The team would miss on only five of 15 shots taken in the quarter while the Gladiators were five of 14. In fact, all five Aliso Niguel starters scored at least three points.

“That was game right there,” said Girley. “That momentum that they took going into halftime…they brought it straight out of the locker room. We just gave up too many easy bunnies at the rim, a couple of wide open shots, and miscommunication.

“Like I said, bigger guards, but I felt our guys were not well enough; they weren’t planting their feet,” he later said. “They were letting [Mysin] walk to his spot with very little resistance and let him score. There just wasn’t enough resistance in that third quarter.”

The Wolverines were up 57-51 with 3:27 left in the contest before the Gladiators tried to make one last surge. Montgomery completed a three-point play before Aliso Niguel scored the next six points. Then sophomore Bryce Titus drained a trifecta before Keys and Titus traded two-pointers. But Gahr would attempt one more shot in the final 62 seconds of the game.

“Guys kept losing track of their assignments,” said Girley. “We didn’t have any weakside help and like I said, against this team, they’re a well-oiled machine. If you have that second of a brain fault, it’s probably going to catch up to you, and that’s what kept happening, unfortunately.”

The Wolverines were led by Mysin (24 points) and Keys and Richmond, who each scored 16 points while Titus paced the Gladiators with 14 points and six rebounds and Montgomery added 11 points and four rebounds. Nathaniel and Woon each had nine points with the latter adding three assists and sophomore Xavier Brown came off the bench to score seven points and grab three boards.

While Gahr won’t be playing for a divisional title, they still have a chance at a state title. The brackets will be released on Mar. 1 with the first round game two days later.

“Hey, I’m not going to give a eulogy speech; there’s no memorial services,” said Girley. “We have a season still going. We have to watch some film, and we have to get right back in it next week. I told the kids we win some, we lose some. This one we lost, but we’ll be right back in it because the way they played and their effort, they rewarded themselves with an extended season.”