Mater Dei Hoping It Has Some More Surprises Left

There have been many great boys’ basketball teams at Mater Dei, but the group Coach Gary McKnight put on the floor when practice began last November didn’t figure to be one of them.

Yet, here it is in the Southern Section Division I-A championship game against Glendora tonight at the Pond. A victory would mean a fifth consecutive section title for Mater Dei, putting this group of virtual no-names alongside the names of those they weren’t supposed to be able to hold a candle to.

“We’ve been hearing all year long that we weren’t as good as other Mater Dei teams, that we wouldn’t be here,” point guard Kevin Augustine said. “It’s been our main focus to prove them wrong.”

There were so many questions that when practice began last fall, McKnight scheduled the season opener the first week of December to enable two football players to complete their season so they could join the team.

Their best player, Schea Cotton, had returned to Bellflower St. John Bosco. That left the team with one returning starter, Augustine, who initially wasn’t considered in the same class as former Monarch standouts such as Miles Simon and Reggie Geary, who are at Arizona.

Mike Vukovich, the team’s 6-foot-9 junior center, was recovering from a serious knee injury, and his replacement was Brad Williams, an all-county defensive tackle who didn’t play a lick on last year’s state championship team.

The off-guard, David Castleton, was recovering from a separated shoulder suffered while playing on the football team. And they had 6-5 Tom Lippold, who shot awkward three-pointers.

“If you asked me at the beginning of the year if we would be here like this right now, I just didn’t expect it,” McKnight said. “It’s just been a great season with a great group of kids. They don’t quit.”

Mater Dei reached tonight’s final because of teamwork, a defense that helped it outscore opponents by an average of 15 points and by outrebounding opponents by seven per game. Along the way, the Monarchs won the championship of the Prep Holiday Classic Tournament in Las Vegas in December. They remained No. 1 in the county and section division polls from the beginning of the season to the end, and extended their four-year South Coast League record to 40-0.

They’ve won 31 consecutive games after a nine-point loss in their opener against perennial power Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill. A Monarch victory tonight would mark their 11th section title. Last season, they won their third state championship.

“It’s great to show all the people who said we wouldn’t get this far that we did,” said Lippold, who nailed five three-pointers Tuesday in an 80-52 semifinal victory over West Covina. “They say that we lost Schea and we wouldn’t be any good. Mater Dei will always be good. You can’t count us out, no matter who you are.”

Castleton, whose shoulder still bothers him, has been a steadying influence, taking some of the heat off Lippold and Augustine with his defense and outside shooting ability.

Vukovich returned after sitting out half the season because of his knee injury and has since averaged 13.3 points and 8.4 rebounds.

Lippold broke a bone in his shooting hand about the same time Vukovich returned, but Williams stepped up his role on the baseline.

While the Monarchs might appear giddy about a shot at another championship, the player perhaps most enjoying the run is Williams, the Times Orange County lineman of the year who has signed to play football at Notre Dame.

Williams has started every basketball game, averaging 6.2 rebounds and six points. He didn’t play last season and was bitterly disappointed when the Monarch football team was eliminated by Los Alamitos in a quarterfinal playoff game.

“We couldn’t [win a championship] in football and I was extremely down,” he said. “So, to come here and do this. . . I’ve just been happy to help out. We’re just doing what it takes to win a state title and we won’t be denied, not after what happened in football.”