Mater Dei Advances After Stopping Late Los Alamitos Rallies : Division I-A: Monarchs hold off Griffins, 83-73. They’ll face Marina in the semifinals.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  Mater Dei High School’s basketball team had Los Alamitos beaten Friday night when, take your pick:

--It flew out to an 11-0 lead to start the game.

--It led by 23 points by the end of the third quarter.

--Reggie Geary dunked for a 13-point lead with 1 minute 25 seconds left.

Maybe the Southern Section Division I-A quarterfinal game could have been over as early as the first quarter, but Los Alamitos wouldn’t let it slip away that easily.

Finally, Mater Dei outlasted one Los Alamitos comeback after another and advanced to Tuesday’s semifinals with an 83-73 victory.

In front of a fire marshal’s nightmare crowd of 2,500 at Ocean View High, Mater Dei survived a 32-point fourth quarter by Los Alamitos, 28 points by Griffin forward Jason Cunningham, and its own streaky play.

Mater Dei plays Marina, a 57-52 winner over fourth-seeded San Bernardino, in the semifinals Tuesday. It’s the eighth time in nine seasons that Mater Dei has advanced to the semifinals.

A Mater Dei-Marina semifinal presents a dream match-up, featuring Orange County’s most successful program over the past decade, Mater Dei, and perhaps the county’s finest player ever, Marina’s 6-foot-11 center Cherokee Parks. Top-seeded Mater Dei is 25-4. Unseeded Marina is 18-10.

Los Alamitos, which had beaten Mater Dei this season in the Trabuco Hills tournament, 56-55, ended its season 20-7.

A 28-point game by guard J.J. Ballesteros, 17 points by center Terence Wilborn and 15 by point guard Kamran Sufi should have been enough to stop Los Alamitos.

An 11-0 start should have left Los Alamitos reeling. But the Griffins kept coming back.

“We could have folded,” Los Alamitos Coach Steve Brooks said. “We could have (faded), but we didn’t. I’m so proud of our kids.”

Down, 64-41, to start the fourth quarter, Los Alamitos seemed beaten. But it wasn’t long before Mater Dei’s lead was down to 69-59 after a jump shot by Los Alamitos guard Bryan Hakala.

A three-point basket by Cunningham, a junior, with 3:03 left brought Los Alamitos to within nine, 71-62.

At this point, Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight had to be feeling antsy, didn’t he?

“I’m always nervous with this group,” McKnight said. “We’re a streaky team. We haven’t showed a lot of consistency.”

Mater Dei’s 10-point lead seemed to be holding firm in the final minutes. Geary’s dunk on a breakaway with 1:25 left seemed to clinch matters, to put Mater Dei up, 77-64, but nothing came easy for the Monarchs on this night.

A moment later, Cunningham made a layup and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but Hakala rebounded, scored, was fouled and made the free throw. Suddenly, Los Alamitos trailed only, 77-69, with 1:05 left.

It nearly cut the lead further when Steve Carbone stole the inbounds pass. But he missed a twisting layup. The ball flew to John Daugherty, who swung it to Hakala, standing behind the three-point line.

But Hakala’s shot missed and Mater Dei’s Matt Manwarren rebounded and was fouled. His two free throws gave Mater Dei a 79-69 lead that finally would hold up.