SOUTHERN SECTION BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Sufi Has Answered the Skeptics : Prep basketball: Mater Dei junior has taken charge at point guard. Monarchs play for title tonight.

Kamran Sufi, that question mark in gym shorts, scratched his two-day growth of beard and smiled. He has heard the talk, all right.

With the plethora of talent the Mater Dei boys’ basketball team possesses, some have asked what that skinny, sometimes awkward-looking kid is doing running the show?

There hasn’t been any out-and-out criticism, mind you, just some caustic speculation.

Heck, even some Mater Dei fans have wondered--aloud--whether this guy should be the team’s point guard, according to Sufi.

“Everyone is allowed an opinion,” said Sufi, a 5-foot-10, 145-pound junior. “I just don’t listen to any of it. If I let it bother me, then they would be right. I just run the team.”

Right into a championship game.

The Monarchs, one of five Orange County boys’ teams playing Southern Section championship games today at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, face Riverside North at 6:45 tonight in the I-A final. Three county girls’ teams will be playing for titles at the Bren Center today as well, including Brea-Olinda, the defending State champion, in the III-AA final against Inglewood Morningside at 8:30 p.m.

Playing in the title game may not be out-and-out vindication for Sufi, but it’s the next best thing.

“Hopefully, I’ve proved I can play the position,” Sufi said.

That depends on whom you talk to.

Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight, a salesman worthy of any auto dealership, calls Sufi the glue that holds the Monarchs together. Mater Dei is loaded with offensive weapons, and he said Sufi is the one who pulls the trigger.

McKnight praises those intangibles--leadership, savvy, mental toughness--that Sufi has.

Others talk of tangible things.

Sufi averages only 4.9 points and shoots 45% from the field. Sure, he hands out 5.7 assists per game, but with Reggie Geary, Marmet Williams, Miles Simon and company hanging around, a guy might get five assists without breaking a sweat.

In fact, Geary, a point guard waiting to happen who will attend Arizona next season, leads Mater Dei in assists, averaging 6.2.

“We hope they keep Sufi at the point,” one coach said this season. “If they ever move Geary there permanently, watch out. No one could match up with them.”

As it is, few teams have. Mater Dei is 29-1, the only statistic Sufi cares about.

Sufi has been a point guard most of his career, which includes three years on a traveling team. He enjoys the control he has over games, which is what drew him to the position.

“My job is to slow things down when we’re out of control,” he said. “I get the ball to the right guys where they can score. I try to lead the team.”

Sufi did just that in the quarterfinals against Dominguez.

After three quarters of mayhem, he took charge. The Monarchs went on a 16-5 run at the start of the fourth quarter and won, 54-48.

Mater Dei had 21 turnovers through three quarters, but only three in the fourth quarter.

“I love pressure situations like that,” Sufi said. “That’s what’s great about playing at Mater Dei. There’s pressure every game because everyone is out to get us.”

Actually, Sufi wasn’t too keen on coming to Mater Dei at first. A Muslim, he had concerns about going to a Catholic school.

“I had all these stereotype ideas about what a Catholic school was like,” he said.

But his parents, Aniq and Samina, insisted. Although they are Muslim, they had gone to a Catholic school in Pakistan.

“Mater Dei offered the the best in academics and sports,” said Aniq Sufi, a chemical engineer who moved to the United States in 1973. “And Kamran has this fondness for playing basketball.”

Sufi won a starting spot as a sophomore and averaged 6.1 points and 5.6 assists. But he shot only 38% from the field.

This year, his touch has improved. In fact, it was Sufi who hit the key shot in a game against Ocean View.

With the Monarchs trailing, 60-59, he came down and sank a three-pointer. Mater Dei hung on to win, 64-62.

“If we needed a game-winning shot, I’d want Kamran to shoot it,” McKnight said. “He can handle the pressure.”

Almost as well as he handles the talk.