MISSION VIEJO, Ca. – The Mater Dei High Monarchs, even with the significant losses of three key starters from their Southern Section IAA and State Division I championship 2011-12 season, remain the top team in Orange County.
It wasn’t quite the same given beforehand, but the identification of the second best team in the county was made quite apparent Saturday night.
The host Mission Viejo Diablos fell behind the Foothill Knights 9-2 in the opening minutes of the Diablo Inferno Tournament final.
But they promptly assumed control of the proceedings and coasted to an 88-62 victory that brought their record to 5-0.
Coach Troy Roelen returned four starters from a team that was 28-5 last season that suffered two of those losses to Orange Lutheran (64-58) in the Southern Section IA title game and Mater Dei (78-66) in the second round of the State Division I Southern Regional.
Three of those players, seniors Evan Zeller, Max Redfield and R.J. Yoakum, make up one of the best perimeters in Southern California.
Six-foot-four Evan Zeller has always been an outstanding jump shooter but has evolved into a full-fledged “true point guard”, as he demonstrated Saturday night with a dozen assists to go with 10 points and five steals.
Six of those assists came via the 3-point range accuracy of Yoakum, one of the better “catch-and-shoot-types” in the Southland.
The 6-1 Redfield is one of the nation’s most highly sought football players (he’s a safety/wide receiver) – Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly was at the Diablos’ opener Monday night.
But he is also a defensive standout in hoops, as well, and is capable of defending smaller guards or larger post players. He had 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds Saturday night.
And Roelen has enough size to call on too in the persons of another returning starter (6-7 Sage Stone, who had 18 points and seven rebounds against Foothill) and 6-5 junior Chandler Hutchison.
Foothill won its first three games of the event by an average margin of 15 points despite being without two injured starters from last season (guard Conner Stevens and center Steven Browne).
With the Knights have all of their pieces healthy and in place, they, too, will be among the Southland’s best.
They also have a quality senior point guard (Justin Davis) and one of the better sophomores in Orange County (6-5 Eric Patton). They were 23-6 last season, losing to Mater Dei (72-60) in a quarterfinal of the IAA playoffs.
By the way, the reconfiguration of the IAA playoff division has resulted in the move of Mission up from IA.
Who else is in the IAA besides Mater Dei, Mission Viejo and Foothill?
Well, only the likes of Long Beach Poly, Etiwanda, Loyola, Corona Centennial, Long beach Jordan, Rancho Cucamonga, Pasadena, Inglewood and Alemany.
It’s going to be a very interesting February and March.
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