Monarchs’ Boyle on Fire From Start While Scoring 32

The game was only 18 seconds old when Mater Dei guard David Boyle made his point.

He made three of them, actually.

His soft, arching three-point shot settled into the net, giving Mater Dei a lead it never relinquished en route to an 83-57 victory over Loyola on Saturday night in the Southern Section 5-A boys’ basketball championship at the L.A. Sports Arena.

After that first shot, Boyle was nearly unstoppable. He scored a career-high 32 points as the Monarchs (30-1) won their 22nd consecutive game and sixth section title in eight years.

“It always helps to hit that first shot,” said Boyle, a 6-foot-5 senior. “After I hit my second shot, I could feel the confidence.”

He was confident enough to make 12 of 23 shots, including five of nine from three-point range. He had 19 points at halftime and 30 by the end of the third quarter.

“Did Boyle go for 32?” Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight asked. “Holy smokes!”

McKnight is usually surprised when one of his players scores more than 25 points. In a team-oriented offense, Boyle leads the Monarchs with a 14.8 average.

“(Loyola) put four guys up on the press and tried for the steal,” Boyle said. “That left me open.”

But Boyle did more than bomb three-pointers and drive for layups. He also pulled down seven rebounds and was part of a defense that held Loyola to 33 points under its season average.

Boyle even dunked. He threw down a soft two-hander that gave Mater Dei a 59-39 lead with 1 minute 21 seconds left in the third quarter.

Boyle grinned when asked about the dunk. He’s known as a scorer, not a dunker.

“I counted it as a dunk,” he said. “And I let the fans know it, too.”

Boyle looked to the crowd after the dunk and saw many familiar faces. The Boyle family bought a block of 50 tickets and about 40 family members showed up.

“I wanted to go out and play hard,” Boyle said. “I didn’t think that much about them when I was out there.”

Boyle’s father, Joe, graduated, from all places, Loyola, in 1955. Two of his uncles are priests who taught at Loyola.

But the family member Boyle was thinking about after the game was his brother, John, who played on Mater Dei’s 1987 state championship team. John is now a student at UC Irvine.

“He’s helped me through everything,” David Boyle said. “He brought me along as a freshman. I have to give him a lot of credit.”

While David has earned a reputation as a scorer, John was a playmaking point guard with the Monarchs. “He played a much different role than I do,” David Boyle said. “I have a lot of respect for him. He played as hard as he could for as long as he could. That makes me work harder.”

Boyle has had another lesson in hard work. Earlier this season, McKnight replaced him in the starting lineup with Dan O’Neil for a few games.

The reason: Boyle wasn’t working hard enough on defense and rebounding.

Boyle got the message.

“It made me realize that I have to think about my game,” he said. “I needed to worry about the little things, not just scoring. After Coach McKnight did that, my season took off.”