Referee’s Whistle Halts a Championship March for Mater Dei

Gary McKnight’s face, as red as his crimson sweater from tipoff on, just about burst with 1:21 left on the clock.

“You should be ashamed!” McKnight screamed.

“That is sinful!”

“I hope you can sleep tonight!”

McKnight stomped his foot and uttered an expression not normally heard in a Mater Dei High School religion class and shouted at Southern Section Commissioner Dean Crowley, seated at courtside.

“Who said he was qualified?” McKnight bellowed, gesturing toward his game-long nemesis Saturday, referee Ernest Kelley.

The second annual L.A. County-Orange County High School All-Star Game--also known as Los Angeles Crenshaw-Mater Dei in the Southern California Division I Regional finals--had just been decided, not by a tomahawk jam by Crenshaw’s Tremaine Fowlkes or a spinning layup by Mater Dei’s Miles Simon, but a whistle by Kelley that momentarily silenced a pulsating Anaheim Arena.

A wild scramble for a loose ball had just gone to Mater Dei’s Mike Karich, who straightened up, whirled and flipped a pass back to Clay McKnight, who launched a potential game-tying three-pointer.

The shot went down.

So did Crenshaw forward Kristaan Johnson, flat on his back.

As Mater Dei’s bench erupted with jubilant fists thrust in the air, Kelley’s jogged toward the scorer’s table, waving off the basket.

Illegal screen on Karich was the call.

Three points were taken away from Mater Dei’s side of the scoreboard.

One point was added to Crenshaw’s after Johnson sank the first of two throws.

Just like that, a 69-69 tie mutated into a 70-66 Crenshaw lead, soon to go down in the books as a 71-67 Crenshaw victory.

“A possible seven-point turnaround,” McKnight said a half-hour later outside the dressing room, a half-hour cooling period. Or at least McKnight had cooled. His thermostat had been nudged from kettle-shaking boil to a steady simmer.

“Johnson pushed through the screen,” McKnight contended. “Not only should the three have counted, but Karich should have been at the line for two.”

Johnson, son of former UCLA great Marques, is headed to his dad’s alma mater, where he will apparently major in theater. Karich’s elbow brushed Johnson as he turned to dish the ball, but Johnson went down as if he were hit by a bazooka shell--a fine piece of ad-lib acting, even if Johnson had to say so himself.

“I wanted to get a foul,” Johnson said, “so I flopped. I exaggerated a little bit to get the ref’s attention. He called it.”

If the wind hadn’t been knocked out of Johnson, it certainly left Mater Dei’s sails. Despite being pounded on the boards all night, despite watching Johnson and mates put back missed shot after missed shot until one Cougar got it right, the Monarchs had struggled back to just three down in the final 90 seconds, then tie it, then have the tie unraveled.

As McKnight ranted on the sidelines, his players put their heads down, trying to outrace the clock, but their emotions had been body slammed. For Mater Dei, the game ended quietly, save for the head coach’s echoing mantra: “You should be ashamed of yourself! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

For the second time in as many years, Mater Dei’s quest for a state title had expired here, in the Southern California Regional final, against Crenshaw. And for the Monarchs, the joke remained the same:

Crenshaw had them outmanned, five transfers to one.

Many have said these two teams deserve these other, with their tentacles reaching out for the cream of Southland teen-aged jump-shooting talent, going where 99% of the other programs can’t. Crenshaw’s entire starting lineup transferred in from other schools, which ought to be reflected in the pregame introductions.

“Starting at one guard, from Fremont High School, No. 5, Tommie Davis.”

“Starting at the other guard, from Serra High School, No. 11, Reggie McFerren.”

Go on down the line. Johnson previously played at Montclair Prep. Fowlkes came in from Culver City. Ronnie Arch, Westchester High.

This kind of stuff makes McKnight bristle, to the point where he brought up the topic, unprompted, after the game.

“Sometimes we get too caught up in all the recruiting violations that we forget about the kids,” he said. “Since LeRon Ellis played here, in 1987, we’ve had two transfers. Two transfers in seven years.

“Granted, those two transfers were All-Americans, Reggie Geary and Schea Cotton. But you name me one school that hasn’t had two transfers in seven years.”

McKnight wanted to shift the spotlight onto his players and away from the talent scouts, real or imagined. “We’ve made the final four three years in a row,” McKnight said. “That’s a mighty feat.”

The referee’s whistle wasn’t ringing so loudly in McKnight’s ears now. He actually smiled as he alluded to a quote in Saturday’s newspaper, attributed to Crenshaw’s Arch, who called his team “a a big bus” and Mater Dei “a little Datsun B-210. We’re on a mission to run them over.”

“If we’re a little Datsun,” McKnight mused, “we must have a pretty big bumper.”

He shook his head.

“A Datsun? Give me some credit at least. I always go American.”