The Lull Is Over for Mater Dei : Monarchs Take Inglewood by Storm in 60-44 Win

The real Mater Dei High School boys’ basketball team showed up Thursday night for the second round of the 14th Tournament of Champions in Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg Gymnasium.

The Mater Dei that has won two Southern Section titles in the past three seasons. The one that has posted a 93-5 record during that span under Coach Gary McKnight. The one that has rolled to 36 consecutive victories over the past two years.

Yes, Mater Dei is alive and well as the Monarchs rolled to a 60-44 victory over Inglewood to advance to the semifinals at 7:30 tonight against Fairfax.

Only two days earlier, the Monarchs looked like anything but one of the top teams in the tournament, much less the 13th-ranked team in the nation. The majority of the press corps covering the tournament wasn’t too kind to McKnight’s team after a poor effort in an opening-round 44-30 victory over a winless Banning team.

McKnight clipped the less-than-glowing articles that had rapped Monarch stars Stuart Thomas and LeRon Ellis and posted them on their lockers Wednesday. The result was a different kind of power of the press.

Thomas, a 6-foot 9-inch senior forward, scored 17 points and had 11 rebounds. Ellis, the 6-10 son of former Laker center LeRoy Ellis, added 19 points and 5 rebounds as the Monarchs improved their season record to 7-0.

“We were a lot more intense under the basket,” McKnight said. “That’s the way we’re capable of playing. We tried to open up the attack, but we still missed some easy shots.”

Picky, picky, picky. When compared to the Monarchs’ effort in the opening round, this game was a masterpiece. Mater Dei’s inside game overpowered Inglewood. The Sentinels led only once, 8-7, early in the first quarter and trailed at halftime, 24-16, after Ellis scored on a nice move down the baseline.

The Monarchs outscored Inglewood, 10-0, in the final five minutes of the third quarter to open a 39-26 lead. Thomas played an instrumental roll in the spurt, scoring on a turnaround jump shot for a 35-26 lead. Later, he made two free throws with five seconds left in the quarter for the 39-26 lead.

Thomas credited the play of Monarch point guard Tom Peabody for the team’s good showing.

“Tom did a great job of penetrating which set us up for a lot of open shots,” Thomas said. “I played tenatively in our game the other night and was determined to make a better showing.

“There’s no reason why we can’t play like this all the time. This was Mater Dei basketball.”

McKnight credited a strong, third-quarter performance for turning the game after Inglewood had crept to within 29-26 to open the second half.

“We have a history of being a good third-quarter team,” he said. “We hadn’t had a good third quarter this year until tonight. I hope it’s there tomorrow.”

Fairfax, which improved to 6-0 with a 47-39 victory over Dominguez earlier Thursday night, should present some problems for the Monarchs--particularly, Fairfax’ full-court press and the Lions’ great shooter, Sean Higgins.

“Higgins is like going against Tom Lewis,” McKnight said. “He’s a 6-7 guard who can shoot. We won’t zone Fairfax, we’ll go straight man-to-man with Peabody on Higgins. He gets all the good players.”

MATER DEI (60)--Dwyer 2, Thomas 17, Ellis 19, Mounce 2, Peabody 11, Rembert 3, Quigley 2, O’Connor 2, Peterson 2.

INGLEWOOD (44)--Jordan 6, Bowens 10, Gatewood 2, Arnett 6, Anderson 10, Lewis 6, Rodriguez 2, Williams 2.