BOYS’ BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Mater Dei, Huntington Beach Open Tournament With Victories

Mater Dei and Huntington Beach High’s basketball teams recorded easy victories in the first round of the Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Tip Off Tournament Friday night at Costa Mesa High School.

David Boyle’s 18 points led Mater Dei, Orange County’s top-ranked team, to a 96-29 victory over La Quinta. The Monarchs broke to an early 10-0 lead and never looked back.

Huntington Beach, led by Savanna transfer Mustapha Abdi’s 27 points, took command of the first and third quarters to defeat Costa Mesa, 86-43.

La Quinta, playing without six of its players because of the Southern Section football playoffs, faces a flu-weakened Costa Mesa today at 4 p.m. Huntington Beach meets Trabuco Hills at 5:45 p.m., and Mater Dei goes up against Irvine. All three games are at Costa Mesa High School.

“We kind of enjoyed this game, but it was very difficult to judge this first game because La Quinta is extremely short-handed,” Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight said.

“We’ll have our hands full tonight with Irvine. It is a very fine team; one that could easily beat us with its patience and the way it runs offensively,” McKnight said.

Mater Dei entered the second quarter with a 30-8 lead, then proceeded to hold the Aztecs scoreless until the final 26 seconds of the second quarter, when sophomore Chap Yam scored his only field goal of the night.

Despite losing, La Quinta coach Jim Perry believed the match was positive for his Aztecs.

“Once they got over their nervousness, the kids played hard and smart. We were able to play a lot of our young kids as well,” Perry said. La Quinta sophomore Lloyd Bennett scored six of his 10 points on three-point plays. Mater Dei’s David Boyle had one three-point shot and teammate Chuck Gray (10 points) hit a pair of three-pointers.

Huntington Beach coach Roy Miller said his Oilers had “ups and downs” in the first half, but settled down and “played the way they are capable of playing” in the second half.

The Oilers’ Abdi and Stephen Lucas (18 points) combined to outscore Costa Mesa, 26-8, in the third quarter to ensure the win.

“We ran out of gas in the third quarter,” Costa Mesa coach Dean Cooper said of his flu-weakened team.

“We were tight on shooting. We only shot about 29 percent, and we’re a better shooting team than that. But I believed we banged the boards with them real well,” Cooper said.