SOUTHERN SECTION BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : Mater Dei Comes On Strong Again

Gary McKnight has grown accustomed to watching his Mater Dei High School basketball team trail at halftime of playoff games.

And the Monarch coach also is getting used to watching his players come back to win.

Mater Dei, the top-ranked team in Orange County, rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat Cerritos, 66-56, in the second round of the Southern Section 5-A playoffs at Cerritos.

Mater Dei (27-1) extended its winning streak to 19 games and, more importantly, advanced to Tuesday night’s quarterfinal game against Santa Barbara. Cerritos ended the season 21-6.

It was the second consecutive game the Monarchs trailed at halftime. They overcame a six-point deficit to beat Irvine, 50-45, on Tuesday night.

“I told the guys at halftime, ‘It’s gut-time now,’ ” McKnight said after Friday’s victory. “It was time to show a lot of character.”

Andy Karich got the message.

When Karich rebounded a missed follow shot by Charlie Andres with 53 seconds to play, Mater Dei was protecting a 59-56 lead. Karich laid the ball in, was fouled by Kesojn Hornbeak and added the free throw to give the Monarchs a 62-56 lead.

It also gave McKnight some relief.

“My wife, Judy, is pregnant with our fifth child,” McKnight said. “The baby’s due in a month, but if we have many more close games like this, the baby will be early.”

In typical Mater Dei style, the Monarchs used tough defense to trim their halftime deficit to three at the end of the third quarter. After giving up 28 points in the second quarter, the Monarchs held Cerritos to 18 in the second half. They held the Dons’ leading scorer, Scott Day, to four points in the second half.

Day caused Mater Dei all kinds of nightmares in the second quarter.

He scored 13 of his game-high 22 points in the quarter, including three three-pointers during a 12-4 run. The Dons led, 38-27, at halftime.

“They were on fire that second quarter,” McKnight said. “That Day was a heck of a shooter.”

Mater Dei could have been in deeper trouble at halftime. Cerritos made nine of 12 free throws in the second quarter, but also missed the front end of three one-and-ones.

“We didn’t shoot our free throws very well,” Cerritos Coach Jim Chapel said. “If we would have hit our free throws in the first half, we could’ve been up 20.”

McKnight said his team didn’t concentrate in the first half.

“We had to calm things down,” he said. “We were too uptight in the first half with the calls by the officials. We needed to take care of ourselves.”

David Boyle led Mater Dei with 20 points. Andres added 15 points and nine rebounds, and Karich had 14 points and eight rebounds.

“Our depth helped us a little bit in the second half,” McKnight said.