ORANGE COUNTY PREP BASKETBALL : Orange Holiday Tournament : Nothing New Here--Mater Dei Captures Its 5th Straight Title

The tournament has been billed as the Orange Holiday Tournament for the past 22 years, but it might as well be the Mater Dei Invitational.

For the fifth straight year, the Monarchs won the championship of the county’s most prestigious tournament, downing Santa Ana, 62-44, Tuesday night in the Hutton Sports Center.

The victory was the 10th straight for the Monarchs this season. They will depart for Arkansas today to compete in the King Cotton Classic, where the nation’s top-ranked Flint Hill Prep of Oakton, Va., awaits among the 12-team field.

Mater Dei will enter the national tournament with some impressive credentials. The Monarchs haven’t lost a tournament game since December, 1982, when Long Beach Poly beat them in the second round of the Tournament of Champions. Since then, the Monarchs have won 13 consecutive preseason tournaments.

Santa Ana, 9-5, gave the Monarchs a fight for three quarters before costly turnovers and the Monarchs’imposing depth finally took its toll.

The Saints trailed, 40-36, going into the final quarter but turned the ball over the first three times they had possession in the last quarter and suddenly their momentum was gone.

Earlier, Santa Ana had used its strong defense to stay even with the nation’s No. 6-ranked team and made 8 of 9 free throw attempts in the second quarter.

“Our depth wore them down,” said Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight. “I knew that Santa Ana was playing without two players coming into the tournament, but I watched how hard they played here and wasn’t surprised when they beat some quality teams.

“I thought we came alive in the second half after I had a heart-to-heart talk with the team at halftime. This team needs to understand that we have to play hard every night because everybody wants to beat us.”

Mater Dei is in the midst of a seven-game schedule over nine days, and McKnight thinks every game will get more difficult along the way. The Monarchs certainly didn’t look like a nationally ranked team in the first half against Santa Ana, which was playing without center Bobby Joyce, who has been suspended.

But Mater Dei pulled away in the fourth quarter by limiting Santa Ana to just two field goals and capitalizing on six Saints’ turnovers.

Afterwards, Santa Ana Coach Greg Coombs had nothing but praise for his team.

“We have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. “If we play like we did tonight, we’ll beat the majority of the teams in the county. We missed some shots, but the team did basically everything I asked of them.”

LeRon Ellis, the Monarchs’ 6-foot 11-inch center, led all scorers with 21 points and shared the tournament’s most valuable player honors with teammate Chris Patton, who wound scoreless in the title game.

In the third-place game:

Capistrano Valley 75, Foothill 69--Guard Scott McCullough scored 28 points, including a short jump shot with 1:25 remaining to seal the win for the Cougars. McCullough made 10 of 22 field goal attempts, and teammate Jim Waikle added 10 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.

Foothill (7-6) held a 39-35 lead at halftime but the Knights made only 6 of 16 shot attempts in the third quarter and fell behind. Guard Doug Kopcha paced the Knights with 20 points.

Capistrano Valley (8-5) made 10 of 14 free throw attempts in the second half to aid its comeback. The victory was the second for the Cougars over Foothill this season.

In the fifth-place game:

Lakewood 63, Dominguez 56--Ronnie Coleman of Dominguez and Duane Cooper of Lakewood, both headed for USC in the fall, put on quite a show. Each scored 28 points with Cooper getting 15 points in the last quarter when Lakewood outscored the Dons, 26-14.

In the consolation championship:

Santa Clara 68, Saddleback 43--The Saints limited Saddleback to only 13 points in the first half with a tight, 2-3 zone defense. Saddleback made only 6 of 26 shots in the half and fell behind, 26-13.

Santa Clara had a 15-point lead early in the fourth quarter when Coach Lou Cvijanovich cleared his bench and his reserves outscored Saddleback by 10 points. Danny Ontiveros led the Roadrunners with 13 points.