Mejia stayed, believing a change of scenery might help turn his life around. It certainly has after he transferred from Durfee High in Fall River, Mass., and enrolled at Corona del Mar High.
At first, Mejia was just the new kid. Outside of the boys’ basketball team, not many knew who he was, how he missed his family back East, and how he wasn’t sure he was going to fit in on his new team.
Just the other night, someone carried a poster of Mejia into the gym before the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division III-A playoffs. The poster was big enough that the gate person had a good reason to charge the student admission for it.
As the picture showed, Mejia was smiling. He always is on and off the court.
“That made me feel really good,” Mejia said of the poster.
The junior has many reasons to be happy. The 6-foot-2 guard turned in a strong first season with the Sea Kings. Toward the end of it, Mejia came into his own.
Mejia exploded last week at home. He hit eight three-pointers and finished with 28 points as CdM beat San Marcos of Santa Barbara, 67-48, in the second round.
Six of Mejia’s threes came in the decisive fourth quarter. For some odd reason, defenders left him wide open near the corner.
Mejia’s glad they stayed away.
“It was one of the games that I will always remember,” said Mejia, who at one point nailed five straight threes, four during a 95-second span late in the game. “It felt pretty good.”
All good things have to come to an end sometime. They did Tuesday night at home.
The fifth-seeded Sea Kings lost to fourth-seeded Gahr of Cerritos, 68-62, in the quarterfinals.
Mejia did his best to rally CdM from a 15-point deficit at halftime.
