Devin Askew of Mater Dei looks for an open teammate Friday night.
It must have been quite a halftime talk by Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight Friday night.
His Monarchs, ranked No. 1 in Orange County, trailed a fired up Corona del Mar team 39-34 at halftime in the semifinals of the Beach Bash Tournament.
But Mater Dei went on an 11-0 run to start the third quarter and outscored CdM 30-10 in the third quarter en route to an 82-63 victory.
The Monarchs (6-1) will face Trabuco Hills Saturday in the championship game. The game was moved to 4 p.m. at CdM so that basketball fans can attend Mater Dei’s CIF state championship football game Saturday at 8 p.m. against De La Salle at Cerritos College.
“We were 4 for 23 from four of our starters,” McKnight said. “That was one problem. I said, ‘we got to shoot better and come out and shoot the ball.’ We were getting good shots, you have to knock them down. Then Ryan (Evans) got us going right from the get-go in the second half and Devin started penetrating and going to the basket and things started happening and we got some stops defensively that we weren’t getting in the first half.”
Evans, who had 17 points, hit four 3-pointers in the third quarter. Askew led Mater Dei with 21 points and Aidan Prukop had 14 points.
“He just got us fired up,” Askew said of McKnight’s post-game talk. “We came out soft in the first half. Ryan always comes out strong, Ryan is playing great and Aidan is shooting the ball great and Harry (Harrison Hornery) is getting boards for us. We just didn’t have the energy. Second half, we turned it up a lot.”
Askew expects the Monarchs will be ready for the championship game.
“It’s going to be a fun game,” he said. “We’re going to come with the same energy.”
CdM was led by John Humphreys, who scored 13 points and Jake Hamilton, who had 11 points.
The Sea Kings led 15-13 after one quarter and jumped out to a 36-31 lead on a 3-point basket by Jack Stone with 1:36 left in the second quarter.
But CdM ran into a very motivated Mater Dei team which turned the tide quickly in the second half.
“The second half, they hit shots, and they hit some tough ones,” CdM Coach Ryan Schachter said. “Second half, they made shots and we didn’t shoot in particularly well in the second half. And their defense had a lot to do with that. We’ve got to get a little better with the pressure releases when teams pick up pressure in the half court.
“But I love the energy our guys played with, even the second half when they were making their run. I thought our guys played with a lot of energy and that’s what I wanted to see. I hope we got better and that’s our goal is to just keep getting better. It’s still early in the year and it’s great to play teams like this.”
Stone added 10 points and Adam Garza 9 points for the Sea Kings.
The Sea Kings will play Pacifica Christian in the third place game Saturday at 7 p.m.
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