Mater Dei Wins 5-A Title for Fourth Straight Time

The new guard in Southern Section basketball is also the old guard, except this time with a team full of foot soldiers. But the red army in disguise got the same results as did any Gary McKnight team with LeRon Ellis or Tom Lewis or Matt Beeuwsaert.

Still the best after all these years, Mater Dei High School of Santa Ana, which finished second in the Angelus League and at times even looked mediocre, won its fourth straight 5-A Division title Saturday night. The victim this year, by a 74-65 score before a crowd of 10,944 at the Sports Arena, was Bishop Amat of La Puente, which had beaten the Monarchs by 14 and 15 points during the regular season.

Mater Dei, a team without stars but full of cohesiveness and playoff experience, advanced to the State playoffs to defend its Division I title with a 20-7 record. Bishop Amat, the top-seeded team in the 5-A playoffs, finished 27-3.

“With this team, a lot of people early on thought we couldn’t do it, and I was one of them,” McKnight said after taking his traditional postgame ride on his players’ shoulders. “You get this far and you want to win it. We lost the Angelus League title, but this is better.”

In a tight game from the start, the Monarchs took a 50-46 lead into the fourth quarter and never relinquished it. They slowly chipped away and pushed the advantage to 12 points before Lancer guard Clarence Lamb hit a three-point shot at the buzzer.

Bishop Amat center Geoff Lear, who came in averaging 21 points a game, credited the Mater Dei coaches with the victory.

“They (Mater Dei) played a 2-3 zone and sagged down,” he said. “It made it tough with three guys on me. You would have seen a different game if they didn’t play zone so much. He (McKnight) is a great coach.”

Bishop Amat was making its first appearance in a basketball title game against the most experienced prep playoff team of the decade. While the Lancers had the two 1988 Angelus League victories on their side, Mater Dei had history:

--Defending State Division I champion.

--Six straight trips to the major division (4-A or 5-A) championship game.

--A Southern Section playoff record of 24-1 over six seasons going in.

However, unlike past seasons, Mater Dei, with 6-6 Char Ruppel as its tallest player, couldn’t match up in size at center. Bishop Amat, with the 6-8 Lear, exploited the height advantage with some success offensively in the early going, but was also allowing several easy baskets on the defensive end.

The Monarchs, coming off their highest-scoring game of the season in an 87-70 semifinal victory over St. Bernard of Playa del Rey, led, 34-27, with 3:15 left before halftime. That included baskets on six of their first eight trips downcourt to open the second quarter.

But Mater Dei then went cold. After guard Dylan Rigdon hit a pair of free throws for the seven-point advantage, it didn’t score for the rest of the half. Bishop Amat went on an 11-0 run and, as a result, had a 38-34 lead at the intermission.

Mater Dei’s four possessions to close out the half included an offensive foul on Rigdon, Derek Stone missing two free throws, Rigdon getting the rebound only to have the ball stolen by Lamb, and an offensive foul by Ruppel.

Lear led Bishop Amat with 13 points (on 6-of-8 shooting) and 9 rebounds through the first two quarters. Mater Dei had two players in double figures, guard Mark Ramstack (13, including 6 of 6 from the field) and Kevin Rembert (10).

Rembert, Mater Dei’s No. 1 rebounder and co-leading scorer during the season, injured his right ankle with 1:30 to play and missed the end of the first half. He returned to start the third quarter.

With him in the game, the Lancers regained the lead, 47-38, with a 13-0 blitz to open the second half.