STATE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : DIVISION I BOYS’ CHAMPIONSHIPS : Mater Dei Doesn’t Give Up Easy Baskets : Southern champion: Quiet assistant coach Taylor drills defense into the Monarchs.

Kevin Augustine’s first day running the Mater Dei gantlet was frustrating, to say the least.

Passes that usually padded the old assist count were deflected. Openings he once slipped through with ease were closed. His leave-’em-standing moves seemed tired and stale.

It was enough to make a freshman point guard scratch his head.

“That first day was rough,” said Augustine, now a sophomore. “I had played on traveling teams where defense wasn’t emphasized. Then I came to Mater Dei and guys were in my face. I had never felt pressure like that.”

Quite a learning experience, and one that Augustine and his teammates have passed on to opponents.

With all the headline acts that have filtered through Mater Dei, the script sometimes gets overlooked. It’s an old line, but dust it off anyway: defense wins championships.

This season, the Monarchs (35-1) have limited 22 teams to fewer than 50 points. They have held eight to fewer than 40 points. They have allowed an average of 48 points.

Obviously, someone is doing something right.

That defensive presence will be tested Saturday when Mater Dei (35-1) plays Oakland Fremont (27-5) in the Division I State championship game. The Tigers have five players averaging 12 points or better--a balance that will collide with the Monarchs’ defensive philosophy.

“It took me about 2 1/2 years to learn our system and I’m still learning it,” senior guard Clay McKnight said. “People always talk about the great offensive players at Mater Dei. Offense wins games, defense wins championships.”

Such catch phrases are drilled into heads around Mater Dei. The man offering the sound bites is Dave Taylor.

Taylor, quiet to the point of bashfulness, has been a Monarch assistant for 13 seasons. He has no aspirations to be a head coach, preferring to remain in the background where he can tinker with the Monarch defense.

“He’s the guy who lays out the battle plan,” Coach Gary McKnight said. “It’s an area he’s very good in and it’s easy for me to rely on Dave.”

Easy for him, sure. Not so easy on his players.

They grumble a bit about the constant drilling, then praise the results. Any one of them can toss out Taylor’s ground-into-the-brain slogans. The most repeated, which preaches team defense: A good offensive player will beat a good defensive player.

“We know when he’s going to say one of those things,” Augustine said. “You can see it coming.”

Talk is cheap. There is substance to it as well. McKnight and Taylor will spend up to 1 hour 45 minutes working on defense each practice from the first day.

But then, there’s a lot to cover.

“We show them the whole concept first,” said Taylor, who attended San Clemente High and is a longtime friend of McKnight’s. “We want all five guys working together. Then we break it down in drills, starting with one-on-one.’

Said senior forward Mike Waugh: “That’s the worst. The offensive guy has the whole court to work with. It’s brutal.”

But effective.

McKnight said no Mater Dei team has played defense better than this edition. More than one opposing coach will clamor an “amen” to that.

By the time the Monarchs had finished whipping La Puente Nogales, 83-33, in the Southern Section Division I-A championship game, Nogales Coach Robert Withers could offer only a shrug and a simple statement: “No one has ever played defense on us like they did.”

Nogales wasn’t exactly a patsy. The Nobles were led by Shomario Richard, a senior point guard who is being recruited by UCLA. He was averaging 30 points and 10 assists when he crossed paths with the Monarchs. He finished with seven points and one assist.

Nogales also had junior guard Will Porter, who averaged 19 points and has been contacted by Indiana. McKnight compared him to former Monarch Reggie Geary, now at Arizona. Porter finished with seven points after a dismal two-for-seven performance from the field.

Augustine covered Richard and Waugh covered Porter. But they weren’t alone. Shaun Jackson and Schea Cotton were usually around to get a few more blocked shots.

“We’d beat one of them with the dribble and someone was always there to help,” Withers said. “So you’d think there would have been someone open. But their guards dropped down to cover that. They just kept rotating.”

Withers can take a seat on the majority side of the aisle. The Monarchs have made many teams look foolish on offense, even some of the best.

Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy, one of the top programs in the nation, is the only team to beat the Monarchs this season. But Oak Hills’ 55-53 victory in the Las Vegas Reebok Prep Classic in December wasn’t exactly packed with highlight-reel nominations.

The only player the Monarchs failed to contain was Brooklyn Lincoln’s Stephon Marbury, who is considered the top senior in the nation and has committed to Georgia Tech. He scored 39--more than six Mater Dei opponents. But the Monarchs turned their offense up a notch for a 92-77 victory to win the Above the Rim tournament at Del Mar Torrey Pines in late December.

It was the most points Mater Dei has allowed this season. Only one team has scored more than 53 since.

“Dave’s goal is always to hold a team under 50 points,” Gary McKnight said. “He has a bunch of goals and numbers to get the kids fired up about defense. It’s easy to have offensive goals, but Dave gives them something to work for on defense.”

Which gives a player such as Waugh a way to contribute. Waugh averages 2.7 points, yet starts at forward. He earned his spot with belly slides, much the way former Monarch Tom Peabody earned a Division I scholarship.

Waugh has followed in those skid marks and often draws the opponent’s leading scorer. But he never is alone.

“I always have my teammates behind me,” Waugh said. “I love big guys who block shots.”

Jackson blocked four shots in a 78-51 victory over Clovis West in the Southern California Regional final Saturday.

“Defense doesn’t get glorified,” Waugh said, “it’s just the reason Mater Dei is successful.”