ANGELUS LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Methodical Mater Dei Marches On With 77-65 Victory Over Bishop Amat

Things are getting a bit routine for the Mater Dei boys’ basketball team. The Monarchs show up; the Monarchs win big; the Monarchs go home.

Simple and effective.

Wednesday night was more of the same. Mater Dei traveled to La Puente and throttled Bishop Amat, 77-65.

Next.

“Hey, they did to us what they’ve been doing to everyone else,” Bishop Amat Coach Alex Acosta said.

True enough.

Mater Dei’s only loss this season was to Oak Hill Academy, a perennial powerhouse from Virginia. Other than that, the Monarchs have pretty much manhandled everyone.

Certainly no one in the Angelus League has offered much resistance. With Wednesday’s victory, Mater Dei finished the first half of league play with, ho-hum, a perfect record. None of those games have been in doubt after halftime.

At this point, the Monarchs are just killing time--and opponents--until the Southern Section playoffs begin.

“Actually, I thought we did pretty good tonight,” Acosta said.

The Lancers did, to an extent. Instead of losing in a flurry, they went down by attrition.

Bishop Amat (9-10, 3-2 in league) stayed within sight of Mater Dei (21-1, 5-0) throughout the first half. But the Monarchs kept extending their lead until they were ahead, 70-45, with 4:25 left.

The Lancers then did a little cosmetic work on the score, mostly by Jelani Gardner, who finished with 20 points.

“I’m pretty pleased,” Monarch Coach Gary McKnight said. “This is a tough place to play and Bishop Amat is definitely one of the better teams in our league.”

If that’s the case, the Monarchs are in a league by themselves.

Mater Dei didn’t even need a productive night from its entire cast. Reggie Geary, bound for Arizona next season, made only four of 11 shots. Marmet Williams, the team’s second-leading scorer, was three of 13.

At one point, Williams missed nine consecutive shots and Geary six.

So up stepped Terrence Wilborn and Ray Jackson. Wilborn, a 6-foot-6 center, was six of eight from the field and finished with 16 points. Jackson made five of six shots, including three three-pointers, and also had 16 points.

“That’s the way it is with us every night,” Wilborn said. “It’s a different guy each game.”

It’s a routine that seems to work.

In another league game:

Servite 43, Loyola 41--With two seconds left, senior Eddie Rubio made a 15-foot jumper to win for Servite (9-10, 2-3). Forward Matt Kenney scored nine points and Adam Anderson had six rebounds for the Friars.