No. 2 Mater Dei upends No. 1 Brea Olinda

ANAHEIM, Calif. - They are teams with history, and it seems like whenever they play, they make it.

On Friday night at the Anaheim Convention Center Arena, the girls' basketball teams of Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) and Brea Olinda were the two top-ranked teams in the country.

And they were playing for the same Southern Section Division 1AA championship.

And it all came down to a trick defense.

Trick if you're Mater Dei.

The Monarchs used a sagging 1-3-1 zone — the first time all season they have used the zone — to keep Brea off the boards and out of the scoring column. The end result was a 63-54 victory that was a little more harrowing than the score indicated.

Both teams are now 29-1, but it's Brea with the losing streak.

Brea came into the game ranked No. 1 in the nation in the Xcellent 25 and Mater Dei was No. 2. They were reversed in the Freeman Rating.

It's the third consecutive section title for third-seeded Mater Dei. Brea was also trying to win a third straight section title, in a division that also included second-seeded Long Beach Poly which, until a quarterfinal upset to
Santa Monica, was No. 3 in the nation. 

After a big first quarter by Mater Dei to take a 16-4 lead, the battle between California heavyweights got close enough to make the Monarchs plenty uncomfortable.

Brea Olinda battled from 15 points down in the fourth quarter — 56-41 with 6:02 remaining — to within two possessions of the lead, 59-54 when Keitra Wallace made one of two free throws with 1:24 remaining.

But that is where the comeback died. Brea missed its final four field goal attempts, and Mater Dei made four of six from the free throw line.

Both teams were brilliant at times — at one point the teams made four consecutive three-point baskets with out a miss — but the slow start by Brea turned out to be too much, ultimately. The Ladycats could never get over the hump, and never got closer than four points in the first half.

A pivotal point came in the third quarter when Mater Dei — holding a 35-28 lead — peeled off the first eight points: a layup by Alexas Williamson, then Kaija Powell, a 17-footer from the corner by Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and layup by Jessica Duarte off a sweet pass from Jordan Adams.

That was indicative of the Mater Dei effort. It got much more varied scoring.

Lewis scored 16, Alexyz Vaioletama 11 with 13 rebounds, and Adams with eight points and eight assists. Yet the difference makers came off the bench, according to Coach Kevin Kiernan. Duarte scored 12, and Kiki Alofaituli scored six.

"They gave us energy, they gave us rebounding, they gave us timely baskets," Kiernan said.

The 18 points off the bench was twice as much as Brea got. The Ladycats were led by Alexis Perry, who scored 22, and Wallace, who scored 12, including six in the last 4:30.

Kiernan credited the zone defense with keeping Brea's talented forwards off the boards and out of the scoring column. Get beat from the perimeter, he preached.

"We wanted to take away (Justine) Hartman's good looks," Kiernan said. "Rebounding was the key to this game."

Mater Dei had 44 rebounds to Brea's 26. The Ladycats had only six offensive boards.

Hartman, Brea's talented star, scored only six points, though she was feeling the effects of a tweaked knee suffered in a semifinal victory over Canyon Springs.

Still, the state will release its regional playoff pairings on Sunday and the two rivals are likely to meet again in the Southern Regional Finals on March 19 at the Galen Center.

At least, that's what's Kiernan is expecting.

And what Brea Olinda is hoping.