Angelus League : Mater Dei Proves Servite’s Undoing : Monarchs Stretch Unbeaten Streak to 48 With 62-46 Whipping of Friars

There’s nothing like a rivalry to bring out the best in a team, and the Mater Dei High School basketball team used friendly adversary Servite to post one of its most impressive wins in a mostly impressive season Friday night.

The Monarchs defeated the Friars, 62-46, in an Angelus League game at Cypress College to increase their winning streak to 48 games, which includes a league record of 4-0 and an overall mark of 19-0 this season.

Rivalry might be too strong of a word here considering that Servite hasn’t beaten the Monarchs since 1982. Nevertheless, play was spirited for a half with the Friars outhustling the Monarchs, but as expected, Mater Dei had just too many bodies for the Friars to contend with.

Mater Dei struggled to a 27-21 halftime lead, found its mark in the third quarter when it doubled the Friars’ output (20-10), and then cruised to the win.

“We were pretty good tonight,” Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight said. “We were pretty effective out there. We got some good breaks out of our zone.”

Usually the Monarchs favor a man-to-man defense, but McKnight resorted to a zone when 6-foot 10-inch center LeRon Ellis got into foul trouble in the first half. The zone resisted Servite’s penetrating guards without the Monarchs giving up the foul.

“We can make a pretty good sized zone,” McKnight noted of his frontline, which includes starters Ellis, Stuart Thomas (6-9) and Jim Dwyer (6-5).

Also, Servite’s perimeter shooting, which was effective in the first half, turned cold at the start of the second, and the Monarchs superior size underneath the boards would only allow the Friars only one shot virtually each time down the floor.

Mater Dei took advantage of Servite’s errant shooting to trigger its own fast break, and most anytime a team can get fast-break baskets in a close game, it serves to both inspire the breaking team and demoralize the defense.

Servite’s fate was all but sealed after three such plays by Mater Dei starting with 2:40 to play in the third quarter and the Monarchs ahead, 37-27.

The first came when Thomas drove the baseline and pulled up to sink an 8-foot bank shot. Servite then managed to bring the ball up to halfcourt before a Mater Dei defender tipped the ball away from a Friar ballhandler and the Monarchs’ Tom Peabody picked up the loose ball up and went in for an uncontested layup.

The coup de grace came 30 seconds later when Mater Dei again stole the ball, had a four-on-two fastbreak, ending in a slam dunk by Ellis off of an alley-oop pass from Peabody. That brought the Mater Dei crowd to its feet and left any thoughts the Friars had of pulling off the upset for another time.

Ellis’ play was fluid throughout the game, in spite of his picking up his fourth foul late in the second quarter.

The Mater Dei coaching staff had lost track of Ellis’ foul count, sending the junior center to the bench until the start of the second half, after which he played brilliantly before fouling out with 12 points late in the fourth quarter.

Like all good centers, Ellis is most effective not just rebounding and blocking shots, but also when threatening to block shots, often causing the Friar shooters to alter the trajectory of their shots with his presence alone.

For its part, Servite played as well as could be expected, but the Friars (2-2, 7-8) do not quite yet have the athletes to match up with the Monarchs. Guard Tony Smalley was the only Friar to reach double-figures in scoring, finishing the game with 13 points.

MATER DEI (62)--Mounce 10, Dwyer 3, Peabody 11, Ellis 12, Thomas 16, Patton 1, Rembert 6, Peterson 3.

SERVITE (46)--Coady 6, Smalley 13, Sullivan 6, Rollins 6, Marusich 8, Caya 2, Thomas 2, McCloskey 1, Murphy 2.