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“In towns and cities... there is no more important institution than the local paper.”
Warren Buffett
January 20, 2026
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
As the La Mirada High boys basketball team continues to carve though the Gateway League, considered as one of the toughest leagues in the CIF-Southern Section, many expect the Matadores to win by huge margins. That’s not going to be the case all the time, as the kings of the league were tested in the first half by Gahr High last Friday.
Gahr, which never led or even tied the Matadores in the first half, trailed by as many as 16 points before going on an 11-0 run late in the half and trailed by seven points at the break. But the Matadores outscored the Gladiators 20-9 in the third quarter and ran away with a 68-50 win to conclude the first half of league action undefeated in four games. Coupled with a 67-55 win over San Diego-based Francis Parker High the next day, La Mirada, winners of nine straight games, improved to 17-6 overall.
“We were just mixing up lineups and rotations,” said La Mirada head coach Randy Oronoz. “We have a lot of guys on our team who can play. So, we were trying to get them in early. We talked as a staff about different scenarios if this happens and if we have this group; how are we going to look at it so we can use this as film in the future. We just told them what we always tell them, which is play hard, make sure we defend and share the ball.”
“It was kind of similar with the first two quarters; not making enough shots,” said Gahr head coach Marcus Girley of the third quarter. “We played really hard; we kind of even tried to match their physicality. They had an advantage, obviously, in size, and I thought we even for the most part negated that. We just didn’t make enough shots to keep up with a high level team like that.”
La Mirada began the game on an 11-3 run and never looked back as junior Gene Roebuck scored the first four points within the opening two minutes. He had eight points, three rebounds and a steal in the stanza. Meanwhile, Gahr had three three-pointers in the first quarter for its only baskets in the stanza. The first came from sophomore Bryce Titus to make it 4-3, then sophomore Xavier Brown to make it 11-6 and finally senior Makhi Montgomery at the end of the quarter to bring the hosts to within seven points at 18-11.
After the Matadores opened a 30-14 advantage with 3:36 remaining in the half, the Gladiators answered back with the 11-0 run as four different players scored, including three-pointers from senior Austin Woon, Montgomery, and Titus.
In fact, both teams were getting most of their scoring from the long ball as Gahr was six of 14 from downtown in the first half while La Mirada was four of nine from beyond the arc before halftime.
“We’re not here for moral victories,” said Girley of his halftime talk to his team. “We’re playing hard, we’re playing great, but let’s flip that scoreboard in our favor. We have a lot of potential and upside [but] they’re young. When you’re young, you don’t have your young bones just yet. And I tell the kids we’ve had a lot of peaks and valleys. But if you look at our overall record, we’re comparative to some of these higher level Division 1 and 2 teams. We’ve only had one game where we were out of it from beginning to end.”
But whatever momentum Gahr had late in the second quarter was wiped out in the first 2:25 of the second half when the Matadores scored the first nine points to lead 41-25. It began with an offensive putback from junior Jordyn Houston and ended with a trifecta from junior Cisco Munoz.
“They were just physical,” said Oronoz of Gahr. “I think we gave ourselves a lot of the problem. Credit to them for how they played physicality-wise. But switching up those lineups…having [senior] King-Riley [Jones come off the bench]; he had the flu all week, so this was the first time he’s even been with the team. Having him get some spotty minutes to get ready to bear a little load tomorrow was important. We were doing a lot of things that maybe the score might have been closer than what others would expect. We’re worried about us getting guys better and getting guys ready to go.”
Senior Kingston Nathaniel, who was limited to two first half points, led Gahr with 14 points while Montgomery came off the bench to add eight points and grab three rebounds. On the other side of the court, four players scored in double figures with Roebuck leading the way (18 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one steal). Next was Houston with 13 points and eight rebounds, senior Andrew Castro (11 points, four rebounds) and Munoz (10 points).
Houston has quietly become a force in La Mirada’s lineup, creating a third scoring option behind Roebuck and Owens. Houston is the team’s third leading scorer and has reached at least 10 points in 14 of the first 19 games.
“You can go further back; Jordyn in the summer would have one good game every four games,” said Oronoz. “Now it’s like three good games every four games. Not that his fourth game is a bad game, we’re just expecting more out of him. So his growth all season has been phenomenal. I love that he’s a workhorse; he tries to get better. He rebounded the ball really well today.”
La Mirada has now won 20 straight league wins; its last league loss was to Downey High 48-47 on the last day of the 2022-2023 regular season. The Matadores would play in the CIF-SS Division 2A championship game where they lost to Rancho Christian High 63-55.
The Matadores began the second round of league action at Dominguez High on Jan. 21 and will host Bellflower High on Friday and Rancho Christian on Saturday in another non-league tilt before visiting Mayfair High on Wednesday.
“I’ve said it before, we challenge ourselves in the preseason and we’ve won a lot of league games the last five years if you include this year,” said Oronoz. “We’re just trying to get better; I don’t really take a look at it introspectively. I just try to work hard every day to get this team better. They’re working hard to get better. We’re playing back to back [games], so we limited some minutes. Some stats might look a little different there, but it’s been a long season and we’re just trying to continue to get better. We want to win a league championship undefeated, and we just made another step to that goal.”
Gahr (14-7, 2-2) knocked off Dorsey High 62-41 this past Monday in the MLK Showcase at Dominguez and will host Mayfair on Friday before going to Dominguez on Wednesday.
“Right where I thought we would be,” said Girley on is progress after the first round of league. “I wish we had another one or two wins on our belt; we gave up a couple. But like I said, we’re an inexperienced team and even my seniors are inexperienced. I love where we are, but now I told the kids we have enough buzz around our name and to really be in the spotlight, you have to win games; you have to win these big time games.”