SANTA ANA – All things considered, notably quality of opponent and the magnitude of what the stakes were, the Mater Dei High boys’ basketball team turned in its best quarter of the season Tuesday night.
And it enabled to the Monarchs to take a couple of figurative big steps.
The 60-54 victory over the visiting St. John Bosco Braves gave Coach Gary McKnight’s squad a share of another (Trinity) league championship – one the Monarchs can get win, outright, with a win in a Trinity- and regular-season finale at JSerra Thursday night.
The program has failed to win at least a share of a league title only once – 32 years ago – McKnight took the helm at Bristol and Edinger in 1982.
And the win – for all purposes – punched the program’s ticket to a seventh CIF Southern Section Open Division playoff field in as many seasons.
The Monarchs (21-6 overall and 8-1 in league) trailed by as many as five points a few times in the third quarter before senior guard Devin Askew “took it over”, as McKnight said afterward.
Askew, who scored 13 of his 23 points in the final eight minutes) banked in – not intentionally, as his coy smile later confirmed – a 3-pointer from the left corner that put the Monarchs up to stay, 49-46, with 5:27 to go.
Jeremiah Nyarko (one of the best sophomore “big” men in the west) missed an in-tight attempt at the other end and Askew took advantage by scoring on a drive to pad the lead to five point with 4:58 remaining.
Another transition bucket by Askew – who had each of his team’s four fourth-quarter field goals – pushed the advantage to seven points.
Yet another Askew hoop (after yet another SJB turnover) pushed the margin to seven and, after Josh Camper missed a layup attempt for the Braves, Ryan Evans was fouled and cashed in both free throws for a 55-46 score.
Camper finally snapped the 11-zip run by the hosts with a 17-footer from the right corner with 2:38 remaining and Northern Arizona-bound forward Wynton Brown hit a mid-range jumper for but the Monarchs secured things with five free throws in the final 50 seconds.
The Braves (21-6 overall and 7-2 in league), who close the regular season with a Trinity game at Santa Margarita, remain a strong contender for one of the eight Open Division slots or a high seed in Division I.
Junior forward Wilhelm Breidenbach (pictured) – hampered by flu-like symptoms that kept him out of one game and quick weakened in games last week vs. Servite and Chicago Whitney Young – turned in his best game of the season for the Monarchs with 22 points, eight rebounds, three assists and a couple of blocked shots.
He confirmed that – at the very least – this was his team’s best start-to-finish performance since it won four consecutive Les Schwab Tournament games just outside of Portland right after Christmas.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “It’s been kind of a roller-coaster season for us, playing well with the ‘highs’ and trying to power thru the ‘lows.’”
The lowest of “lows” were likely the four-point Trinity victory over Servite Friday – a win the Monarchs nearly let slip away – and the 10-point loss to Whitney Young Saturday.
“But I think this is a lot like a year ago,” Askew said, “when we started our playing out best right before the start of the playoffs.
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