SANTA ANA – What is a perfect one-word description for the opening night of the State Regional Boys’ Open Division play?
“Upsetting” will do just fine, thank you very much.
The No. 1 seeds in both the North (30-1 Richmond Salesian, toppled by Folsom, 75-70) and the South (23-6 Mater Dei, edged by L.A. Fairfax, 50-47) were stunned on their home courts Friday night, shaking up the respective brackets going into Tuesday night semifinals.
Coach Gary McKnight’s Mater Dei team, which had knocked off Crespi, Etiwanda and Sierra Canyon to capture the CIF Southern Section’s Open Division crown, was down by 10 points –14-4 – six minutes into the game Friday night.
The Lions (23-9), who were beaten by Western League rival Westchester in the March 3 L.A. City championship game, were able to spread the Monarchs’ defense with the superior quickness while often going deep into the shot clock for penetrating for layups and knocking in jump shots.
And senior guard Jamal Hartwell was doing most of the jump shooting, hitting three 3s and two mid-range jumpers to push his team up, 28-19, with a little more than two minutes to go.
And, as the Monarchs continued their ineffectual half-court offense (they were two of 10 from the field and two of four from the free-throw line for six points in the quarter), the Lions closed the half with two free throws by Robert McRae and a layup from Ronald Mitchell to go up, 32-19, at intermission.
Just 17 seconds into the third quarter Hartwell with his fourth 3 and Kirk Smith hit one of two free throws pushed the advantage to 17 points.
But the Monarchs finally stabilized its half-court defense and got some offensive execution culminating three 3s (two by freshman Devin Askew and the other by senior Spencer Freedman) to cut their deficit to five points after three quarters.
Back-to-back buckets from Harrison Butler and Michael Wang got Mater Dei to within two points with four minutes remaining and, seemingly, on the verge of pulling in front, hanging out and earning a Tuesday night home game in the semifinals.
But Hartwell picked up his fifth and final – and, certainly, most dramatic – 3 from out front after a baseline drive and pass from McRae with 2:37 remaining.
Misses by Butler and Freedman put the ball back into possession of Fairfax but then, after again going deep into the shot clock, Hartwell missed a jumper with the Monarchs’ Reagan Lundeen clearing the rebound with 1:34 remaining.
Seventeen seconds later Freedman, after a pass from Wang, drilled a 3 from the left corner to get the Monarchs to within two points.
After a timeout by Fairfax Coach Steve Baik with 1:08 to go, the Monarchs were about to endure their most frustrating defensive sequence of the season – one that, in reality, may have kept them from overtaking the Lions and extending their season.
Freedman committed a foul on Hartwell out front with 1:03 remaining but it was only Mater Dei’s third personal of the half — the Monarchs needed four to commit four more fouls before sending the Lions to the free-throw line.
Lundeen was whistled for the fourth foul with 47 seconds remaining and Askew got the fifth with 36 seconds to go.
After another Fairfax timeout, Hartwell got the ball but was trapped by two Mater Dei athletes and tied up with 18.7 seconds remaining – but the possession arrow pointed the Lions’ way.
And it took another 10 seconds for first Lundeen and then Freedman to commit fouls and put Ronald Mitchell at the free-throw line.
He hit the first but missed the second with Wang grabbing the rebound.
But by the time Freedman was able to get the ball and launch a shot, he was forced into a contested, 23-footer from the left side while well defending and the ball glanced off the backcourt and rim and the clock ran out before a rebound could be secured.
“Normally, it would have been tough to get the guys back up (emotionally) after that loss (to Westchester),” Baik said afterward.
“But it helped when we found out we were going to have to go play at Mater Dei. And who can’t get excited about playing at Mater Dei? So we had to choice but to focus and get back to work in practice (on Monday) to get ready to play as well as we could.”
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