Boys’ basketball: Mulling the Andy Brown factor
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Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight didn’t seem to want to use Andy Brown’s absence as an excuse for his team’s loss to Riverside King on Saturday in the Southern Section Division I-AA championship, telling reporters who inquired about the injured forward, ‘Guys, this is the team we’ve got.’
But after the Monarchs lost, 79-64, to Fairfax tonight in a Southern California Division I regional quarterfinal, McKnight wasn’t denying that Brown’s absence left a gaping hole. The Stanford-bound Brown, Mater Dei’s most clutch player in the postseason last year, was lost for the season in late January when he tore a knee ligament.
‘We rallied when Andy got hurt and played at a high level for a while,’ said McKnight, whose team defeated national power St. Benedict’s Prep in February. ‘But not having Andy, it just wears you out. We just struggled not having that gun.’
Brown’s absence left the Monarchs with few serviceable options beyond their starting five. Only four players scored against Fairfax and starters Gary Franklin Jr., Tyler Lamb, Travis Wear and David Wear played all 32 minutes.
Mater Dei struggled to defend the perimeter or capitalize on Fairfax center Renardo Sidney’s foul trouble. With the big man on the bench for the final 5 minutes 8 seconds of the second quarter, the Lions actually extended a two-point lead to six points at halftime.
‘We should have gone inside more,’ McKnight said. ‘We should have taken advantage of it and didn’t.’
And so the team that spent most of the last four months ranked No. 1 in the nation finds itself staring at a long off-season after falling three victories short of a trip to Sacramento. Franklin and Lamb return next year, but the Wear twins conclude their high school careers on a down note.
‘This team is 66-3 in the last two years,’ McKnight said. ‘There’s not a high school that wouldn’t be happy being 66-3 in two years.’
Well, maybe one.
--Ben Bolch