SANTA ANA – The Trinity League boys basketball championship was decided more than a month ago, when the Mater Dei High Monarchs held off St. John Bosco on their home floor, 72-66, on Jan. 30, for their second win over the Braves.
But those squads will meet for a third time Tuesday night with much more than a league banner at stake.
The Monarchs (29-5), following their 79-71, State Southern D-I regional semifinal win over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame Saturday night, will visit Bellower to play on the Braves’ home court.
The Braves improved to 26-7 Saturday night by edging visiting Damien (63-59) for their second regional squeaker of the week.
Coach Matt Dunn’s team, by way of its No. 1 seed D-I, earned the right to host the No. 3 Monarchs.
What’s on the line? The winner will get a Thursday bus ride to Sacramento, where it will represent the Trinity League – and the southern half of the state – in the Friday night, 8 o’clock, D-I championship game (against either Granada or San Ramon Valley) in the Golden 1 Center.
Coach Gary McKnight’s Monarchs – who were dropped to the D-I regional bracket after going 0-3 in t CIF Southern Section Open Division pool play – blitzed CIF SS D-2AA champion St. Anthony and fellow CIF SS Open 0-3 finisher Corona Centennial Tuesday and Thursday nights in the Meruelo Center.
But the comp – the CIF SS D-I champion Knights, led by the best offensive player in the California senior class in University of Houston-bound Mercy Miller – figured to be considerably tougher.
And that proved to be the case as the 6-foot-3 Miller scored 17 points to help his team go up, 36-34, at intermission.
Miller (despite missing four of six shots from the floor) and junior guard Lino Mark scored six and eight points, respectively, in the third quarter.
But the Monarchs – held to three of 10 from the field in the second quarter after going 10 of 15, including five 3s, in the first quarter – got their offensive rhythm back after Notre Dame took its biggest lead, at 40-36.
Five more 3s – three of those by sophomore Luke Barnett, whose range is limited only by the imagination of those watching him – and the dazzling footwork, either-hand finishes and on-target passing of junior Brandon Benjamin put the Monarchs up by five after three quarters.
It was much the same in the fourth quarter, as the remarkable offensive skill of Miller (who finished with 29 points) and Mark (26 with 11 in the final eight minutes) couldn’t overtake the execution and shooting of the hosts.
The 6-3 Barnett (21 points, 18 from behind the arc) nailed a couple of shots in the 25-foot range and 6-9 junior Blake Davidson (13 points and eight rebounds) hit his third 3.
But it was the combined defensive effort of junior Owen Verna and senior Scotty Belnap – with a lot of help from their teammates – that kept Miller a least somewhat contained when he appeared on-target to go for a 50-banger Saturday night.
He hit five of his seven attempts (including three 3s) in the first quarter but missed 12 of his final 16 very well-contested shots.
The most efficient and impactful player on the floor for most of the night was the 6-5 Benjamín (pictured), who was the Orange County Player of the Year while playing for Canyon last season.
The most offensively player in the low post in Southern California, Benjamin scored 23 points (hitting seven of eight from the field in the second half and all six free throws) to go with nine rebounds and six assists.
Coach Matt Sargeant’s Knights closed their season at 31-4, with Miller’s two-year stint with the program producing a Southern Section D-1 title (with their 69-65 win over Windward at the Toyota Arena on Feb. 24) and a State D-I crown last season.
With a lineup expected to be anchored by Mark and two other Saturday night starters, sophomores Zachary White and Caleb Ogbu, the Knights could have the goods to be among the 10 best teams in SoCal in 2024-25.
REGIONAL NOTES:
*As had been anticipated since they played in the CIF SS Open final on Feb. 23, Harvard-Westlake and Roosevelt will hook up in Tuesday night’s Regional Open title game, with the Wolverines’ 59-54 sectional title win earning them the No. 1 regional seed and the right to host Tuesday.
What wasn’t expected, though, was how each team prevailed.
Roosevelt, which needed a late jump shot by Brayden Burries to edge St. Joseph when they played on Jan. 6 at Redondo in the Take Flight Challenge, cruised past Tounde Yessoufou & Co. Saturday night, 58-41.
Harvard-Westlake smacked Carlsbad by 39 points when they played on Nov. 18. But it needed a 42-point effort from McDonald’s All-American guard Trent Perry to help the Wolverines rally from 13 down late in the first half and edge the San Diego Open champion, 73-72 Saturday night.
*Another rematch of a CIF SS finale will have the Bosco Tech traveling from Rosemead to Mission Hills Tuesday night to take on Alemany in the D-III finale.
Alemany needed three overtimes to prevail when they played at Colony on Feb. 24 in the D-3A finale.
Bosco Tech (26-9) cruised past San Marcos, 79-60, Saturday while Alemany (23-15) cruised past its third San Diego Section team of the regional, University City, 68-55.
*Four other San Fernando Valley-based programs join Harvard-Westlake and Alemany with opportunities to earn spots in state title games Tuesday night.
Heritage Christian (26-9) is at home to Bakersfield Christian (27-7) in the D-II finale.
L.A. City programs Cleveland (20-10) and Chatsworth (19-14) hook up in the D-IV game on the latter’s home floor.
And another L.A. City squad, Verdugo Hills (24-11), plays host to Bakersfield North (29-6) for the Southern spot in the D-V final.
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