Mater Dei puts on Tarkanian-impressing performance

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Friday night, the entire Mater Dei High team and coaching staff remained seated on the Monarchs’ bench after the team’s victory over Savior of New York in a semifinal of the inaugural Jerry Tarkanian Las Vegas Classic at Bishop Gorman High.

Why? Coach Gary McKnight wanted his players and staff to pay homage to Tarkanian when the 82 year-old coaching legend was honored in between the event’s semifinals.

And, Saturday night — when Tarkanian watching from court-side — the Monarchs paid their respects to Tarkanian in another fashion:

They put on a marvelous display of dominant basketball while breaking out to a 14-zip advantage and then easing their way past the host Gaels, 76-60.

Junior forward Stanley Johnson, with 23 points and 13 rebounds and a solid defensive job against Gorman’s Rashad Muhammad, was chosen the event’s Most Valuable Player.

But, truth be told, the honor could be shared with a couple of teammates: seniors Elijah Brown (22 points and nine rebounds) and point guard Jordan Strawberry (five points, six assists and only one turnover).

And there were plenty of other contributors during the team’s five victories in four days, most notably senior post Mike Tisdale, who helped limit Bishop Gorman’s mega-gifted sophomore center Stephen Zimmerman to one bucket in four shots; and junior wing Mario Soto, who opened things with consecutive 3s.

The final score doesn’t truly represent the fashion in which McKnight’s club controlled things.

McKnight called a timeout after Gorman got to within 29-23 with less than a minute to go in the first half,

When play resumed, Strawberry nailed a 3 from the left wing to get the lead back to nine then, after an ill-advised shot attempt by Gorman with about 10 seconds to play, Johnson jammed his foot down hard on any Gaels’ momentum with a 30-footer at the buzzer for a 12-point advantage.

Other results Saturday included: Chicago Morgan Park over Our Savior (third place); Oakland Bishop O’Dowd over Phoenix Pinnacle (fifth place); and Sacramento Sheldon over Redondo Beach Redon (seventh place).

My all-tournament choices (not all of which were aligned with the “official” all-tourney squad):

  *Stanley Johnson (6-6, Jr., Mater Dei/MVP)

*Elijah Brown (6-3, Sr., Mater Dei)

*Jordan Strawberry (6-1, Sr., Mater Dei)

*Stephen Zimmerman (6-11, So., Bishop Gorman)

  *Rashad Muhammad (6-5, Sr., Bishop Gorman)

  *Kyle Davis (6-0, Sr., Morgan Park)

*Billy Garrett (6-4, Sr., Morgan Park)

*Cheick Diallo (6-8, So., Our Savior)

*Michael Nzei (6-7, Jr., Our Savior)

*Ivan Rabb (6-8, So., O’Dowd)

  *Dorian Pickens (6-3, Jr., Pinnacle)

*Dakarai Allen (6-6, Sr., Sheldon)

  *Ian Fox (6-0, Jr., Redondo)