PREP BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES : Southern Section Boys : Bishop Amat-Mater Dei Final Means Parity, by 5-A Standards

No matter how it looks, there is parity in the Southern Section 5-A division, when it comes to boys’ basketball.

Mater Dei High School of Santa Ana, the team that has won the championship three consecutive years and took the state Division I crown last season, meets Bishop Amat of La Puente, the top-ranked team, for the 1988 title Saturday night at 8:45 at the Sports Arena. It seems like a parody of parity.

But this is parity. Bishop Amat is 27-2 and a league champion after losing in the first round of the playoffs and finishing third in the Angelus League in 1986-87. Mater Dei, which finished second in the Angelus after suffering unheard of consecutive losses during the nonleague schedule, reached the title game without a dominant player.

“I don’t think you ever think at the beginning of a season that you’re going to go through the playoffs or go 28-0,” Alex Acosta, Bishop Amat’s second-year coach, said after the Lancers beat Lakewood, 62-54, in the semifinals Wednesday. “We just played it week to week, and after each week our confidence built.”

A big boost resulted from beating Mater Dei in January, 70-56. And when Bishop Amat beat Mater Dei again in February, 72-57, suddenly, things were getting interesting indoors at a school known for football and baseball.

The major contributors all season have been Geoff Lear, who had 23 points and 21 rebounds in the semifinal win; Clarence Lamb, who scored 19; Stephon Pace, an outstanding all-around athlete; and Terry Lamb, although he was not at full speed Wednesday because of a sprained ankle.

Mater Dei (20-7) is led by guards Mark Ramstack and Dylan Rigdon and forwards Kevin Rembert, a three-year varsity player, and Char Ruppel.

The rest of the Southern Section schedule, with all games Saturday at the Sports Arena unless noted:

4-A

Simi Valley (26-3), with two All-Southern Section candidates in Don MacLean and Shawn DeLaittre, has been the team to beat from the start, but Capistrano Valley (26-4) presents a unique problem with its size in the 7 p.m. game. Jim Waikle is a 7-footer and Steve McCaughey is 6-10.

But the Pioneers have seen that before. They surprised Capistrano Valley in the 1986 semifinals at Pepperdine.

“They’re a lot like they were two years ago,” said DeLaittre, who scored a game-high 22 points in Tuesday’s semifinal win over Santa Ana. “A 6-10 guy, a couple 6-7 guys, . . . and they’re slow. They’re pretty easy to go around.”

If so, no one has been able to exploit it during the playoffs.

Capistrano Valley beat Diamond Bar and a very good big man, Brian Hendrick, in the quarterfinals and defeated Santa Barbara and forward Paul Johnson in the semifinals. The Cougars are led by guards Todd Marinovich, who was averaging 22.3 points going into Wednesday’s game, and Charles Lockard and sophomore forward Scott McCorkle.

But will that be enough?

“I think we have more talent than anyone in the CIF,” said MacLean, who, as one of the most talented players in the state, should know. “It’s just a matter of playing our game and not playing into the other team’s hands.”

3-A

How Kennedy (21-7) was able to reach the title game, at 11:30 a.m., for the first time in school history, nobody knows. In the semifinal Tuesday on the road against Rolling Hills, the Irish fell behind, 16-3, and trailed at halftime, 42-19. With 3:10 left in the third quarter, Rolling Hills was up by 24.

Final score: 83-80, in triple overtime.

The next night, Tustin (24-5) beat Rolling Hills’ area rival, Palos Verdes, in the other semifinal. An all-South Bay, top-of-the-hill matchup suddenly became an all-Orange County matchup.

2-A

This is a rematch of last season’s game between Banning and Woodbridge, which was won by Woodbridge with then-junior center Adam Keefe scoring 32 points before being kicked out for his part in a bench-clearing brawl.

Keefe is back, good as ever, for the 9:45 a.m. game. He scored 34 in the semifinal win Wednesday over San Bernardino as the Warriors improved their record to 22-5.

Banning (29-0), the Sunkist League champion and top-seeded team in the division, is the only undefeated team in the Southern Section.

1-A

Bell-Jeff (19-6) will play Beaumont, the De Anza League champion with a 22-5 record, at 7:30 tonight at Yucaipa High.

Bell-Jeff has won 12 straight, and the last one may have been the most impressive.

A team that starts just one senior, center Henry Polee, cousin of former Manual Arts star Dwayne Polee, fell behind, 15-2, midway through the first quarter in the semifinal against L.A. Baptist of Sepulveda. The signature half-court trap wasn’t working. But the Guards, co-champions of the Santa Fe League, came back to win, 60-52.

In the quarterfinals, they defeated St. Bonaventure of Ventura, the top-seeded team in the division.

Beaumont is the second-seeded team.

SMALL SCHOOLS

The best play figures to be inside, where forward/guard Mitchell Butler and center David Fond will lead Oakwood (24-2), the No. 1 team in the division since the start of the season, against 6-8 Ted Hahs of Hesperia Christian (22-2) tonight at 7:30 at Hesperia High.

Hahs scored 23 in the semifinal win against Cate of Carpinteria. In a quarterfinal win over Boron, Butler scored 50 of Oakwood’s 55 points.