Monarchs Look Better Than Ever

The Mater Dei High boys’ basketball team won another title at the Tournament of Champions Saturday night, a feat that has become so routine that it’s barely worth mentioning the details.

In fact, not long after Mater Dei claimed its 10th consecutive tournament crown with a 92-68 rout of Redondo Beach Redondo Union, talk at Ocean View High turned to just how this year’s imposing Monarch team stacks up.

“If we stay healthy, this probably will be one of the best teams Mater Dei has had,” said UCLA-bound senior guard Cedric Bozeman, the tournament’s most valuable player.

Bozeman, who scored a team-high 28 points on 13-of-22 shooting from the field, wasn’t around to see all of the teams that have played for Coach Gary McKnight since 1983.

But McKnight was, and he was even more emphatic.

“This is a very experienced team,” McKnight said. “It has size and depth and athleticism. It is one of the best teams we’ve had.”

It could get even better once 6-foot-10 center Jamal Sampson, who has committed to California, fully recovers from an ankle sprain that kept him out of the lineup the last three games. Playing gingerly, Sampson had several dunks off one leg and finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots in a little more than 18 minutes.

Guard Travis Gabler, a lesser-known 6-3 senior guard who made 14 of 19 three-point shots during the three-game tournament, finished with 18 points.

“He’s our fourth option,” McKnight said. “We’re so deep. I’m playing eight or nine guys and there are two or three more who ought to be in there, too.”

In the third-place game:

No. 4 Ocean View 69, Pasadena 47--Guard Marques Crane scored 24 of his 28 points in the first half for the Seahawks (3-1).