Mater Dei Backing Away From UCI’s Bren Center

Coach Gary McKnight says Mater Dei plans to play most of its boys’ basketball games next season in its on-campus gym, saving UC Irvine’s Bren Center “for special games or a Friday night game.”

The Bren Center, with a capacity of 5,000, has been the Monarchs’ primary home for nearly five seasons. The last time the Mater Dei boys’ team played in the on-campus gym, which seats about 800, was in 1990.

“We like to play there [the Bren Center],” McKnight said. “It’s an advantage because many teams aren’t used to shooting in an arena backdrop, and we are. But especially during [South Coast] league, opponents didn’t bring many of their fans to the games, and it got too expensive.”

The Bren Center wasn’t available for Mater Dei’s Southern Section Division I-A first-round playoff game Friday, so the Monarchs played at Ocean View High. McKnight said he would try to play all remaining home playoff games at Ocean View, “if it’s available.”

McKnight said another reason for returning to the campus gym was the proximity of the fans to the game. He said spectators sit too far away from the basketball floor at the Bren Center.

“We want to play where the crowd [noise] is more of a factor, and a high school gym has that,” McKnight said. “If you ask the kids, they’d rather play at home.”

There are plans for a new campus gym, McKnight said, “but that’s in Phase 2 of the plans to rebuild the campus, which is five to six years down the road.”

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He’s baaaaaack: Schea Cotton’s on-again, off-again basketball career is on again. Really on. The junior, who led Mater Dei to a state title last year, scored a game-high 33 points for Bellflower St. John Bosco in the Braves’ 62-51 victory over Bell Gardens in the Division I-AA playoffs. Cotton made all four of his three-point shots.

That Cotton is playing at all is a surprise. He suffered a broken hand in early January, and two weeks ago Braves Coach Brian Breslin said he was “done for the year.”

But Cotton reportedly was told by his parents that he could play again this season if his hand healed in time and he got his grades up.

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Silver lining: There were a lot of sad faces Friday night in Villa Park when the Spartan boys’ basketball team, after posting its first winning season since the 1970s, was defeated by Trabuco Hills in a playoff opener.

“That’s a darn shame,” one fan muttered on his way out of the gym.

Villa Park Coach Kevin Reynolds put a different spin on the loss. While admitting his team’s lack of playoff experience hurt down the stretch, he pointed out that five of his top seven players return next season. They can’t help but benefit from the experience, Reynolds said, adding that they’ll also carry the weight of Friday’s loss around for a while.

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One of those nights: Coach Gene Lloyd had fretted all last week. His Brea Olinda boys’ basketball team had gone through a poor week of practice, and he didn’t believe it would be ready for its Division II-A first-round game against Hacienda Heights Los Altos.

The Wildcats weren’t, and they were bounced by the Conquerors, 66-59.

“I had bad feelings about this game and it was everything I feared,” Lloyd said. “I don’t know if kids picked up [those feelings], but we did not perform like we were capable.

“I felt we had a chance to get into the quarterfinals. It would have been unrealistic to feel we could be a favorite to win against Artesia, but I thought we could get there. Still, Los Altos was as bad a draw as we could get. There were many 13-12 teams out there, and we get an 18-8 team from a pretty good [Miramonte] league.

“They played very well, and played hard. I admired their effort. I take nothing from ours, but we didn’t have it going.”

In other years, the veteran coach said, he might have brooded for days about the defeat. “But I know how there’s more to life than basketball. I’ve been through it enough to know sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesn’t.”

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What if . . . Trabuco Hills may have been an at-large team in the Division II-AA girls’ basketball playoffs, but the Mustangs are probably wondering what might have been. After falling behind by 13 points in the first quarter, Trabuco Hills had a four-point lead against Foothill midway through the third in their first-round playoff game. But Sarah Warnick, who already had reached her 18-point average, injured her knee, and Foothill came back for a 63-50 victory.

Foothill followed with a 52-49 victory over Loara and plays Wednesday in the quarterfinals against unseeded Moreno Valley.

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Waltzing with Eagles: Estancia Coach Russ Davis knew his team dodged a bullet Saturday with its victory over Rosary in the first round of the Division III-A girls’ basketball playoffs.

“Normally, the third-seeded team plays the third-worst team,” he said. “Obviously, that didn’t happen. There are teams in this division who are like JV teams.”

“I told the girls that they’ll never be in a better position to get to [the final] because of the division and our position in the division.”

Davis also had news for those who think stopping Jessica Waltz will stop Estancia.

“We’ve had six different players score 15 points in a game this season,” he said. “A lot of people think this is a one-man show.”

Waltz scored three points--all free-throws--in Estancia’s 64-52 victory over Rosary.

The Eagles made 25 of 44 shots from the field (57%), but only 11 of 29 free throws (38%).

Notes

Both Costa Mesa’s basketball programs finished the year with interim coaches. Criss Freeman went 0-4 after the death of boys’ basketball coach Jason Ferguson, and Shontell Sherwood went 3-5 after the resignation of girls’ coach Len Whitacre. Sherwood said she will apply to become the program’s permanent coach. . . . The Ocean View boys’ team (13-15), which defeated El Monte Mountain View, 59-53, in the Division II-A opening round, hosts Compton Dominguez (25-2), perhaps the best team in the state. In the Dons’ 102-52 victory Friday against South Torrance, six players scored in double figures. Dominguez led at halftime, 50-17. . . . Melody Peterson scored the 2,000th point of her prep career in the final South Coast League game of the season, against Mission Viejo. She added 14 to her total against Oxnard in the Monarchs’ first playoff game and has 2,024. Peterson is the second Orange County player this season to surpass 2,000 points in a career. Edison’s Marie Philman was the other. Included in Peterson’s points are those she scored at Monrovia, where she averaged about 18 as a freshman. Peterson, a guard, transferred to Mater Dei before her sophomore year.

Staff writers Martin Henderson and Paul McLeod contributed to this story.