Whew! Mater Dei wins a close one

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The Long Beach Wilson boys’ basketball team was poised to become giant killers tonight, but somewhere over the last two minutes, the Bruins must have remembered who they were playing.

Wilson gave up the game’s final seven points to second-seeded Mater Dei and that was enough for the Monarchs to escape with a 70-61 victory in the Southern Section Division I-AA semifinal at Ocean View.

Wilson gave up about six inches of height along the front line and was out-rebounded, 42-17, but junior guard Steven Richard kept the Bruins in the game, scoring 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting.

Nick Sanchez also chipped in 11 points to make up for an off night for Michael Wilder, who missed 10 of 12 field-goal attempts.

Mater Dei junior forward Andy Brown scored 25 points and twins David and Travis Wear continued to do everything the same, making six field goals and scoring 14 points each.

I’m sure the Monarchs were happy to get this one over with.

-- Dan Arritt