5-A BOYS : Santa Barbara Slows the Pace, but Still Can’t Stop Mater Dei

After watching his team lose its 5-A quarterfinal game, 51-31, to Mater Dei High School Tuesday night at Ocean View High School, Santa Barbara Coach Bob Purdy pondered the reasons for such a blow-out.

While poor shooting and unaggressive rebounding might have seemed to be his team’s flaws, Purdy instead pleaded youth and ignorance.

“Seven of our top eight are juniors,” Purdy said. “They’ve never even heard of Mater Dei, much less played them before.”

Well, now they know.

Mater Dei (28-1) is the 5-A’s top-seeded team, and ranked sixth in the nation this week by USA Today. And after two come-from-behind victories in their earlier playoff games, the Monarchs proved they’re definitely not on a waning streak.

“We played (against) so many different styles the last three games, every night out is a different story,” said Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight, whose team will play El Toro--a 85-76 winner over Cajon--in Friday’s semifinals.

“We expected a bang-bang tough game tonight,” McKnight said.

What the Monarchs got instead was Santa Barbara’s slow-down tactics, which didn’t get the Dons (21-7) very far.

Mater Dei opened a 7-2 lead off the strength of David Boyle’s first five points. While Santa Barbara tried to hold the ball and pass around while waiting to find a shot, Mater Dei’s man-to-man defense forced four turnovers in the first quarter and kept Santa Barbara from a field goal until Dave Palmer hit a jumper in the lane with 1:45 left in the first period.

Santa Barbara made just two of six shots from the field in the first quarter, but that was better than the quarters that followed. The Dons finished with eight of 33 (24%) for the game, including 3 of 12 in the first half.

“We didn’t execute the game plan, we tried to slow it down, and we didn’t play well, either,” Purdy said. “They were a very aggressive team. We’re not used to that.”

After taking a 19-11 halftime lead, Mater Dei outscored the Dons, 12-4, in the third quarter. In that quarter, Santa Barbara did not convert any of its 12 attempts from the field.

Boyle, a 6-foot 5 senior guard, led Mater Dei with 13 points. Danny O’Neil came off the bench to add 11 points, and Derek Stone had 10. Point guard Jason Quinn had seven assists.

Palmer scored 11 points to lead Santa Barbara. Six-foot-seven center Matt Purdy, the coach’s son, was held to just five points, thanks to the defense of Monarch forward Andy Karich.

“Defensively, we did a very good job,” McKnight said. “Purdy looked pretty frustrated. Andy Karich did a good job on him.”