Santa Ana Mater Dei defeats Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, 82-76

Every once in a while, UCLA-bound Tyler Lamb of Santa Ana Mater Dei wishes he could help his future Bruins teammates right now.

“I love how my senior year is going and how our team is playing,” he said. “I don’t mind waiting, but there’s always the urge to go to college now.”

With UCLA Coach Ben Howland watching, Lamb scored 26 points to help top-ranked Mater Dei hold off Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, 82-76, Saturday night in the Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei.

Besides Lamb, Mater Dei (22-1) has two other guards headed to Pacific 10 Conference schools in Keala King (Arizona State) and Gary Franklin Jr. (California). King had 21 points and Franklin 17. But it’s Lamb’s athleticism and versatility that are much in demand.

Shabazz Muhammad, a highly regarded 6-foot-5 sophomore forward, made quite an impression for Bishop Gorman (23-2), scoring 29 points.

With one week to go before the regular season ends, Saturday’s games were an opportunity for top teams to test themselves against quality opponents.

There were nine games played from morning to night.

One of the best performances of the day was turned in by the Huntington Beach Ocean View duo of Anthony Brown and Avery Johnson.

Brown had 32 points and 12 rebounds and Johnson had 30 points in an 83-67 victory over Orange Lutheran. Ocean View is 22-3 and ranked No. 8 by The Times.

In the final game of the night, nationally ranked Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick looked sharp in a 91-64 victory over Woodland Hills Taft. Duke-bound Kyrie Irving scored 24 points and talented 6-8 junior Michael Gilchrist had 22. USC-bound Bryce Jones had 19 points for Taft (19-4).

St. Patrick left town Thursday after a report in The Star-Ledger that a committee had recommended banning St. Patrick from the state tournament for holding illegal practices before the season.

Villa Park senior Andrew Selway made eight of 13 three-point shots en route to a 32-point performance in a 70-47 victory over San Juan Capistrano JSerra.

Former Arizona coach Lute Olson was honored in a presentation before the Mater Dei-Bishop Gorman game.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com