ORANGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Mater Dei Makes Quick Work of Saddleback in 62-40 Victory

It only took two seconds, or as quick as one can say Mater Dei High School, to establish which is the best prep basketball team in Orange County this season.

Mater Dei, the team of the ‘80s, capped a remarkable decade by defeating Saddleback, 62-40, Friday night in the championship game of the 25th Orange Holiday Tournament in Chapman College’s Hutton Sports Center.

Mater Dei (12-1) won the game with two remarkable plays that took all of two seconds in the third quarter. Saddleback (10-5) never recovered.

Charles Andres provided a stirring three-point play with three seconds remaining in the quarter that pushed Mater Dei ahead, 42-32.

Saddleback turned the ball over on the ensuing inbound play, and Mater Dei got possession with three seconds still showing on the clock. The Monarchs worked the ball into guard Danny O’Neil, who scored on a reverse layup and was fouled.

O’Neil completed the three-point play and suddenly Mater Dei had a 13-point lead. O’Neil, who finished with 21 points, had 11 points in the third quarter but didn’t make the all-tournament team. Teammate Andy Karich was named the most valuable player.

“It was a triangle that we use on out-of-bounds plays and Danny did a little ad-libbing,” said Gary McKnight, Mater Dei coach. “Saddleback had probably seen it two or three times, so Danny did some adjusting. It really helped.”

The tournament championship was the sixth for Mater Dei since 1982 and avenged last year’s loss to Saddleback in the title game. But it didn’t come without controversy, which has also been a trademark for Mater Dei in the ‘80s.

McKnight caused most of the excitement in the first half, getting two technical fouls for disputing calls in a very physical game. McKnight got his first technical when officials disallowed Derek Stone’s basket with 4:51 remaining in the first quarter, ruling that a foul occurred before Stone’s basket.

McKnight’s second technical came with 1:48 remaining in the second quarter when the officials ruled that two seconds be put back on the clock. The second technical helped Saddleback get back into the game after trailing by as many as 13 points in the half.

Mater Dei’s aggressive defensive play forced 10 turnovers but was also responsible for the early foul trouble that Stone and point guard Jason Quinn got into. Both had three fouls in the half but didn’t foul out.

In the third-place game:

Dominguez 56, Marina 44--Dominguez outscored Marina, 23-8, in the second quarter to take a 19-point lead and Marina (8-6) made only two of seven shots in the quarter.

Dominguez (11-1) did a good job of containing Marina’s 6-foot-11 center, Cherokee Parks, for most of the game. Parks scored 24 points, had nine rebounds and blocked five shots but tired in the fourth quarter when he failed to make a shot.

In the fifth-place game:

El Toro 71, Foothill 60--Rob Johnson made a pair of three-point shots and scored on a layup off a steal to open the second half as El Toro (11-2) erased a six-point halftime deficit. It was the Chargers’ 11th win in their last 12 games.

Forward Mark Wilkinson scored 35 points for Foothill (8-5).