PREP BASKETBALL : Artesia’s Star Held in Check by Mater Dei : O’Bannon Scores Only 19 in Monarchs’ 76-48 Victory

It wasn’t difficult to see the reasons why Mater Dei High School beat Artesia, 76-48, Wednesday night in a nonleague game at Orange Coast College.

A swarming defense, a big game from a reserve and an early lead were enough to carry Mater Dei in its final nonleague tuneup.

Mater Dei opens Angelus League play Friday against defending champion Bishop Amat.

The turning point in Wednesday’s game came with 2 minutes 53 seconds left in the first quarter and Artesia trailing, 16-12.

That was when Ed O’Bannon, Artesia’s high-scoring junior center, picked up his second foul.

Wayne Merino, Artesia coach, quickly substituted for O’Bannon and the roof fell in on the Pioneers.

By the end of the first quarter, Mater Dei expanded its lead to 26-15. Though O’Bannon returned to the lineup to begin the second quarter, Mater Dei kept on rolling.

It was up to a 46-24 lead by halftime, then became a 32-point spread by the end of the third quarter at 64-32.

“We rotated a lot of guys on Ed defensively,” said Gary McKnight, Mater Dei coach. “He’s a great one. He’s as good an athlete as a junior that I’ve seen. And I’ve seen quite a few good juniors.”

O’Bannon had a team-high 19 points and 5 blocked shots for Artesia (10-4), but it was far below the 30.2-point average he had coming into the game. O’Bannon, who has college coaches counting the days until he’s eligible to sign a letter of intent, had 50 against Long Beach Poly last week.

The Monarchs also played pretty tight defense on Artesia’s guards, De Andre Austin and Chris Thompson.

Mater Dei’s hounding press forced numerous turnovers and contributed to several long dry spells for Artesia.

For instance, after Thompson’s fast-break layup cut the Mater Dei lead to 32-22 with 4:26 left in the second quarter, Artesia failed to score again until O’Bannon made a jumper with 16 seconds left in the half.

Mater Dei outscored Artesia, 14-2, during that stretch.

Then to begin the third quarter, O’Bannon made 2 free throws with 7:01 left, but it wasn’t until he made a basket with 4:50 left that the Pioneers scored again.

By then, Artesia lost any chance of mounting a comeback.

Charlie Andres, a reserve forward, scored 19 points to lead Mater Dei (15-2).

“Charlie Andres had his highlight film night,” McKnight said.

He more than made up for the absence of starting guard Dylan Rigdon, who was sidelined with a sore back.

“His back was sore in the semifinals and final of the Orange tournament last week and we wanted to give him a game off before league starts,” McKnight said. “(Forward Mike) Morris came down with the flu (Tuesday), so I’m going nuts.”

Morris had 12 points and forward Andy Karich added 10 points for the Monarchs.