Angelus League : Mater Dei Makes It Look Easy

Mater Dei High School gave St. Paul a resounding, 95-63, beating Wednesday night in front of a packed crowd of 1,000 at St. Paul.

And this was supposed to be the showdown for the Angelus League basketball title?

It was ragged at times, dull in the late going, but mostly it was a rout after the first quarter as everything Mater Dei did seemingly went its way.

Mater Dei led by as many as 35 points in the fourth quarter before Coach Gary McKnight removed the starters in the final minutes.

Mater Dei (23-2 overall, 7-0 in league play) clinched the league title, its sixth in the last seven seasons.

Mater Dei, ranked second in the Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. poll, will advance to the Southern Section 5-AA playoffs, which begin next week. St. Paul, ranked second and assured of a playoff berth in the 4-A, falls to 18-7, 5-2.

Even McKnight seemed surprised at how easy it all was. Mater Dei won the teams’ first meeting, 72-57.

“I sure wouldn’t have worried for six days like I did if I knew it was going to be like this,” McKnight said.

Mater Dei stopped St. Paul’s high-scoring offense in the early going, building a 14-8 first-quarter lead. It was hardly the pace St. Paul is used to playing.

The Swordsmen came into the game averaging 87 points a game. But until they closed with a late flourish, it appeared they wouldn’t reach 60.

In a nonleague game against St. Bernard Jan. 30, St. Paul scored 34 points in one quarter on the way to a 103-101 victory.

Wednesday, the Monarchs also neutralized Greg Willig, St. Paul’s leading scorer and the school’s all-time scoring leader. He had 16 points to tie with Jesus Real for team-high honors, but was not much of a factor.

Willig, a 6-foot-7 senior forward who has signed a letter of intent to play football at Rice, came into the game averaging 27.6 points. He made only six of 20 shots from the field and was two of 10 in the first half as St. Paul trailed, 41-24, at intermission.

Mater Dei had no such troubles offensively.

Guard Dylan Rigdon had 23 points, including three three-pointers, to lead all scorers. Mike Morris, playing a steady game, added 21 points and Andy Karich had 16. Mater Dei also got a big boost from sixth man David Boyle, who had 13 points, including eight in a 50-second stretch early in the fourth quarter.