SANTA ANA, Ca. – Seniors Kaden Minter and Gabriel Quiette split 16 of their team’s 21 fourth-quarter points to help the Mater Dei High boys’ basketball program maintain its dominance – but barely – over its counterpart from Santa Margarita Thursday night.
The host Monarchs, trailing by 15 points with a little more than a minute to go in the first half, got 16 third-quarter points from junior forward Zach Davidson and then used the Minter-Quiette Class of 2022 combo to catch and then hold off the Eagles, 61-58, in a Trinity League game.
The visitors – who haven’t beaten Mater Dei in 17 years and have never done so on the Monarchs’ campus – had an opportunity to send things into a four-minute overtime but senior forward Jake Heberle, after taking a pass from sophomore guard Cameron Mercadel, saw his 22-footer, launched from the right wing and in front of his bench, go long off the iron at the buzzer.
The Monarchs took their first lead, at 49-46, when another senior, Jack McCloskey (who played his first three seasons with Santa Margarita), scored on a back cut (via a pass from Davidson) while being fouled and converted the And-1 with 3:56 to go.
Minter’s 3-pointer, and the ensuing free throw as a result of being fouled while knocking in the deep shot, gave the hosts their biggest lead (at 55-49) with 2:14 remaining before Heberle hit four free throws on two trips to the free-throw line – sandwiched abound a Kyle Evans block of a Davidson layup attempt.
After a Mater Dei turnover, their fourth of the quarter and 14th of the game, first Eberle and then Mercadel failed on attempts from well behind the arc.
The 6-foot-6 Minter (pictured) slapped back Mercadel’s attempt, chased the ball down and turned the recovery into a breakaway jam to push the edge back to four points with about a minute and a half to go.
After Santa Margarita and the Monarchs exchanged turnovers (their 18th and 15th, respectively), Evans took a pass from Reynolds and converted from the left side, while being fouled, and his free throw got the visitors to within a point with 13 seconds to play.
Following the inbound pass, the Eagles got up a hard trap on a ball-handler in the backcourt but the Monarchs got a timeout called – their last – with 7.5 seconds to go before a possible turnover.
When play resumed, the ball was inbounded to Minter and he was immediately fouled with 6.6 seconds remaining and he sank both attempts before Heberle’s oh-so-close miss.
Davidson finished with a game-high 22 points while Minter and Quiette had 13 apiece.
Heberle scored 13 points while Mercadel, Evans and Rockwell Reynolds each scored 12 for the Eagles.
The win improved the Monarchs to 21-2 overall and 6-0 in league – giving them a two-game edge on the second-place Eagles, who they beat by 18 points at Santa Margarita on Jan. 12.
Mater Dei plays another Trinity opponent (Servite) Friday night at 9 as part of the two-day, Mater Dei Extravaganza, and follows with Los Altos Saturday night at 7:30.
Santa Margarita fell to 17-2 and 6-2.
Leave a Reply