Mater Dei Brushes Off Capistrano Valley, 70-53

Mater Dei hasn’t lost to another county team since falling to Marina in the 1991 playoffs, and did not figure to lose on Wednesday to Capistrano Valley.

The Monarchs didn’t, brushing aside the Cougars, 70-53, at the Bren Center to remain undefeated in the South Coast League, 4-0, 21-1 overall.

Along with a game-high 28 points, which included a couple of crowd-pleasing dunks, Kevin Augustine kept the Monarchs rolling on their current 21-game winning streak.

He accomplished this by either knifing through the Capistrano Valley defense for layups, pulling up for timely jumpers and keeping the rest of his teammates involved in the offense. Particularly hot was center Mike Vukovich, who had 15 points.

“We really need his scoring now especially with [Mike] Lippold out [with a broken left hand],”said McKnight.

Cougar Coach Brian Mulligan, whose team (12-9, 3-1) saw its five-game winning streak end, agreed that Augustine was the difference, even though Capistrano Valley had 15 turnovers and Mater Dei had seven steals.

“We knew we had to contain Augustine, which we were not able to do,” Mulligan said. “But I also think Augustine is that good.”

He was Wednesday, scoring 12 points in the second quarter to push Mater Dei to a 39-26 halftime lead. Midway through the third quarter, the advantage grew to 53-35, the Monarchs’ biggest lead of the night.

Augustine likely will be the difference for the Monarchs Friday, when they play at Mission Viejo. In addition to Lippold being out, center Brad Williams, who provides bulk and rebounds on the inside, is headed to Notre Dame on a recruiting trip.

“Forget [Mission Viejo’s] league record (1-3),” McKnight said. “They have a tremendous amount of talent and had a terrific preseason. This is going to be a very hard game.”

In other league games:

Dana Hills 55, San Clemente 37--Dana Hills seemed to be camped out at the free throw line, going 30-42 at the line.

Mike Hutchens, who had a game-high 24 points, was 10 of 15 at the foul line and teammate Jeff Barnett scored 16 points for Dana Hills (11-9, 1-3).

Trabuco Hills 59, Mission Viejo 56--Nick Punto scored 19 points and Mike Cummins had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Trabuco Hills (10-10, 2-2).

Gabe Burt scored 14 to lead the Diablos (14-6, 1-3).