ANGELUS LEAGUE BASKETBALL : No. 1 Mater Dei Struggles Before Downing Servite, 55-46

The Mater Dei basketball team may be near the point of no return.

Such was Coach Gary McKnight’s reaction after his team, top-ranked in the county, wasted an early lead and struggled to a 55-46 Angelus League victory over Servite Friday at Chapman College.

“I feel this could be a turning point in our season,” said McKnight. “We could use this and learn from it or this could be the beginning of the end. I don’t feel a player or a coach did a very good job tonight as far as Mater Dei is concerned.”

Mater Dei, which improved to 19-1 overall and 3-0 in the league, will not have much time to regroup. The Monarchs travel to Bishop Montgomery, also 3-0 in the league, tonight. Servite fell to 2-2 and 9-8.

The first quarter gave no sign of the troubles Mater Dei would experience. Defensively, the Monarchs forced Servite into six first-quarter turnovers. On offense, Mater Dei connected on eight of 14 shots and led, 20-9, entering the second quarter. From then on, however, the Monarchs struggled.

Mater Dei, forced into a slower-paced game than McKnight wanted, made only 19 of 51 shots. “We had some pretty good shots and they didn’t even come close at times,” said McKnight. “They were playing a sagging man-to-man. We had open shots. If you would have told me they were going to sag and give us open shots, I’d have been a happy camper.”

The only positive McKnight saw was his team’s offensive rebounding, which was a factor at key points in the game. Trailing, 30-29, in the third quarter, Mater Dei’s Charles Andres grabbed an offensive rebound, scored and was fouled. He made the free throw, and Mater Dei never trailed again.

And in the fourth quarter, with the Monarchs clinging to a 41-39 lead, Andres again completed a three-point play after an offensive rebound as the Monarchs began to pull away. Mater Dei followed with four straight points to seal the win.

Meanwhile, Servite is likely wondering what might have been. The Friars made just 10 of 20 free throws and committed 14 turnovers.

“Some free throws and a couple breaks here and there and things might have been different,” said Servite Coach Richard Smith. “They’re a great team. We weren’t able to take away all the weapons they have.”

Derek Stone led Mater Dei with 14 points and David Boyle added 11. Servite was paced by 15 points from Adam Anderson.