Lewis Scores 33 as Mater Dei Wins

Mater Dei High scoring star Tom Lewis bowed out on a winning note as the Monarchs won the Southern Section boys’ 5-A basketball championship with an easy 69-58 victory over Ocean View Saturday night before 11,467 fans at the Long Beach Arena.

The Monarchs completed a perfect season by gaining their 29th consecutive win as Lewis scored 33 points and had eight rebounds before fouling out with 4:29 left to play. He finished his three-year career with 2,423 points, which places him fourth on the Southern Section’s all-time career scoring list.

Mater Dei became the first large division school to complete an undefeated season since Inglewood went 29-0 in 1980. The Monarchs are also the first Orange County school to ever have an undefeated season. Ocean View finished the year with a 24-4 record.

Mater Dei went on a 16-4 scoring spree during a four-minute span in the third quarter to turn the game into a rout. The Monarchs expanded a 34-27 lead to a 50-31 margin during the streak and guess who sparked the spurt?

None other than Tom Terrific himself. The 6-foot-8 senior had four free throws and a follow shot to account for six of his team’s 16 points during the spurt.

The Monarchs also got a big lift from junior Stuart Thomas, who scored 17 points and had 12 rebounds in what was easily the best game of his career. Rick Butler led the Seahawks with 15 points and 10 rebounds but the sophomore was Ocean View’s only effective scorer.

The Seahawks’ guards, Mike Labat and Blaine DeBrouwer, never could get untracked against a Mater Dei team that compiled an 86-5 record over the past three years. DeBrouwer, the Seahawks’ leading scorer with a 15.9 average, scored only six points before fouling out with 26 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Lewis was the star of the game, but he started slowly, missing his first three shots. But he ended up with 17 points in the first half. He made 7 of 14 shots in the half, including a 20-foot jump shot with three seconds remaining that pushed Mater Dei ahead, 30-23.

Ocean View surprised the Monarchs by opening a 7-2 lead and then extending it to 9-4 when DeBrouwer made two free throws following a McKnight technical foul. But the Seahawks went cold in the second quarter and didn’t score a basket until Labat connected on a 10-foot shot with 2:30 remaining to play.

Lewis got the Monarchs rolling in the second quarter by scoring on a variety of shots. His twisting layup gave Mater Dei a 19-15 lead with 6:25 left to play and then he showed his versatility by moving outside to score on an 18-foot baseline shot and then the 20-footer to complete quite a quarter.

Ocean View, which appeared to be tight in the opening warmups, made only 9 of 22 shots in the first half as guards Labat and DeBrouwer combined for only 3 of 13 shots. Butler had nine points, but all of those came in the first quarter as he failed to take a shot in the second quarter.

Thomas had nine points and six rebounds at halftime. The Monarchs were 12 of 27 from the field in the half.