Light Touch

Every team needs to lighten things up once in a while, and Mike Bayer often makes that happen for the Mater Dei boys’ basketball team.

More than once during a game, Bayer, a 6-foot-7 senior, has cracked a joke while standing at the free-throw line.

Earlier in the season, he invited teammates to his Laguna Hills home before a game, only to lock them out.

He once removed all the gear from teammate Michael Strawberry’s locker before practice, leaving the freshman forward to receive a tongue-lashing from Monarch Coach Gary McKnight, who assumed Strawberry had left his equipment at home.

“He’s the jokester of the team,” junior guard Steve Scoggin said of Bayer. “He loves to play jokes on people.”

Not that Bayer won’t take seriously tonight’s game against Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, scheduled to begin at 7:30 at Cal State Fullerton.

Bayer is averaging 14.5 points and 9.5 rebounds this season, and, along with Scoggin, the team’s leading scorer at 15.3 points, has been a mainstay for the county’s top-ranked team.

The Monarchs (22-3) are reaping the rewards this season of what only they could call a rebuilding season in 1997-98. Mater Dei finished 21-8 but its five-year string of Southern Section championships ended.

For most of the past two seasons, Bayer has been the Monarchs’ starting center. He averaged 15 points and 8.5 rebounds last season, when he shared South Coast League most valuable player honors with Capistrano Valley’s Mike Stowell.

Bayer again began this season in the post. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, but Jamal Sampson, a 6-10 sophomore transfer from Westchester, broke his foot before the season and his hand during the season. Another sophomore, 6-9 Erik Soderberg, who started 15 games as a freshman, has spelled Bayer occasionally.

On Wednesday in their rematch with South Coast League-rival Capistrano Valley, Sampson made his first start at center, with Bayer moving to forward. Sampson had nine blocked shots, 13 rebounds and 12 points, and Bayer chipped in 12 points to help the Monarchs race past the second-ranked Cougars, 68-53.

“I didn’t mind playing center as long as the team won,” Bayer said. “But we’re a lot better now that everyone fits into their spots. I like playing power forward because I get to drive to the basket more. . . . It just gives me more freedom.”

In their first game against Capistrano Valley last month, Bayer had 18 points and 11 rebounds, helping the Monarchs rally for a 78-74 victory in double overtime. He hit two free throws with 41 seconds left in the second overtime to tie the score, 74-74.

“He does some really nice things for them,” Capistrano Valley Coach Brian Mulligan said. “He’s a nice kid too. He and Scoggin play really well together, and now with Sampson they’re going to be a different team.”

Bayer said Sampson, who played only five minutes against the Cougars in the first game, has already taken some of the pressure off.

“He helps me out with rebounding,” Bayer said. “Before, we were undersized under the basket, but now we’re a lot bigger. He’s a smart player too.”

But Bayer was still able to talk Sampson into dressing up in baggy pants, a slinky shirt and furs, then paraded him unwittingly in front of his teammates.

“That was funny,” Scoggin said. “Here is this 6-10 guy wearing these baggy pants that didn’t even reach the ground.”

Bayer, whose sheepish grin deflects much of the wrath he might otherwise face for his pranks, said he likes to keep things light. Scoggin said there’s a subtle method in Bayer’s approach.

“If something is going bad, he’ll be there to get us going,” Scoggin said. “In a tight game, he’ll be making jokes. I think it’s good. Every team needs one like him. You can’t be serious all the time.”

Scoggin and McKnight agree that Bayer can get away with mischief because he is serious about his performances on the floor.

“He’s a hard worker,” Scoggin said. “He works harder than anyone.”

Bayer said he hasn’t decided whether to take his bag of tricks East to college. He has visited Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y., and plans to visit Iona in nearby New Rochelle. An older brother, David, who attended Columbia, and his father, Ron, live nearby.

“I like the East Coast,” said Bayer, who lives with his mother, Aina. “I had a lot of fun on my visit. . . . There are a few other schools looking at me now, and I haven’t ruled them out yet.”