Mater Dei Gets Serious in Second Half Against Westchester

Before Mater Dei could begin counting down to another clash with Los Angeles Crenshaw, the Monarchs had to keep a date with L.A. Westchester Thursday at Ocean View High.

The meeting didn’t go exactly as planned, but it went well enough for Mater Dei to advance to the Southern California Regional Division I championship game with a 79-72 victory over the Comets.

Saturday at the Pond, the Monarchs (32-2) will get another shot at Crenshaw, which has won all four regional title games against Mater Dei.

“Mater Dei and Crenshaw is the ideal game for the Pond, and the ideal game for CIF,” Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight said. “You got Orange County’s power, you got the L.A. power, and everybody wants to see it, even the people who don’t like Mater Dei want to come and root for us to get beat.”

Those people would have enjoyed the first half against Westchester. The Comets, who lost in the City Section title game, led by one after the first quarter, but stretched it to seven after two minutes.

Westchester (25-7) made nine of 16 shots during the second quarter and took a 42-37 lead into the half.

“Coach told us at halftime that they were really beating us up on the boards, which they were,” Kevin Augustine said. “But we came out in the second half and had a more concentrated effort on the boards.”

Mater Dei made the turn for home on its first possession of the second half when Vukovich fed Lippold under the basket who was fouled as he laid it in.

The three-point play closed Westchester’s lead to 42-40, and Augustine’s soft jumper in the lane tied it less than a minute later.

After the Comets missed their third consecutive shot to start the half, Augustine took off for the other end and scored a three-point play to give Mater Dei 45-42 lead with 6:15 left in the third quarter.

Westchester continued to cool off from the perimeter while the Monarchs just got hotter. Jermery Turner’s three-point basket was the first of nine shots to go down for the Comets in the quarter and it stopped Mater Dei’s scoring run at 10-0.

Albert Miller’s steal and layup got Westchester even, 47-47, but Mater Dei scored the next seven points, including a difficult up-and-under layup by Augustine.

The Comets got within three to start the fourth quarter, but again the Monarchs responded with eight straight points.

Augustine led the Monarchs with 26 points, Lippold had 24 and Castleton contributed 20 for Mater Dei, which committed only 11 turnovers.

Tony Bland had 16 points and 11 rebounds for Westchester.