North Hollywood’s Roll Comes to Stop Against Mater Dei

Anybody for a moral victory?

Why not? If you’re a North Hollywood High fan, that seems to be the logical conclusion to draw from Mater Dei’s 76-64 win over the Huskies in the first round of the Division I Southern California regional in Huntington Beach Tuesday night.

The Huskies, coming off of their first City basketball championship, did not rest on their laurels but kept playing--against the second-ranked team in the state, no less.

Which is why there were no long faces after the Huskies had closed a 15-point second-quarter deficit to just seven, at 68-61, with a little more than three minutes left.

Sure, they didn’t pull out a victory. But they had the big, bad Monarchs, the winners of six of the past eight Southern Section championships, scared.

“I think we surprised them,” said senior center Dana Jones, who fought off a vise-like triple team all night to score 19 points. “In the second half, they knew they were in for a game. I think everyone underestimated us.”

Jones tried a tip-in off an alley-oop pass but it wasn’t until the ball had trickled off the rim that Mater Dei’s fans, who filled the Ocean View High gym to the rafters, could begin chanting: “We want state!”

The miss left the score at 70-61 with just 3:08 left. Mater Dei’s Charlie Andres went inside for a basket on the next possession to ice the win.

Mater Dei (31-1), which played “really flat” in the words of its coach, Gary McKnight, could just be good enough to satisfy its fans’ desire.

And the Monarchs showed that potential early. Outsizing the Huskies at every position and moving the ball with crisp precision, Mater Dei ran off 10 consecutive points in the first quarter to open a 16-4 lead from which North Hollywood would never recover.

That first quarter proved to be a showcase for 6-foot-6 swingman Andy Karich, who scored 13 points in the opening eight minutes and finished with 26.

But North Hollywood (24-4) refused to roll over. Trailing, 42-32 at halftime, the Huskies turned to the outside shot in the second half with hopes of relieving the congestion in the key. Senior Harry Marks, who led the team with 20 points (13 in the second half) and sophomore point guard Robert Hill, who played with a poise that belied his class standing, scored 10 of his 11 points in the second half.

But each time North Hollywood closed the gap to just inside 10 points, Mater Dei struck back. If it wasn’t Karich, it was the 6-6 Andres, who seemed unafraid of Jones’ defensive presence inside and scored 21 points. And then there was 6-5 guard David Boyle, who scored 14 points.

“They’re an excellent team,” North Hollywood Coach Steve Miller said. “We gave it our best shot and we’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”