Mater Dei coaches, including head coach Gary McKnight, meet with the players during a timeout Tuesday at the Beach Bash Tournament.
Mater Dei’s boys basketball team, back in Orange County after a weekend trip in Chicago, got back on track defeating Compton 71-48 in the opening round of the Beach Bash Tournament at Corona del Mar Tuesday night.
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The Monarchs, ranked No. 1 in Orange County and No. 5 in this week’s CIF Division 1 poll, were coming off a 67-61 loss to Whitney Young of Chicago Saturday in the Chicago Elite Classic.
Mater Dei (4-1) started off strong, outscoring Compton 21-7 in the first quarter. But Compton outscored the Monarchs 17-13 in the second quarter to remain within striking range.
The Monarchs had a 34-24 lead at halftime.
“I thought we had a good first quarter and then I thought we got real sluggish, maybe that’s a tribute to them, they beat us in the second quarter and I thought we were a little lethargic,” said Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight.
“We’re still getting back from a trip and I asked Schac (CdM Coach Ryan Schachter) if we could go a little early the first couple games so they could get their sleep caught up because of travelling back East and coming back out here. And I thought we got going a little better midway through the third quarter until midway through the fourth. I thought we picked it up a notch, but we need to play a lot better as we progress.”
Mater Dei finished strong, outscoring Compton 22-10 in the final quarter.
Mater Dei has a young team, especially in the starting lineup.
“When you start five underclassmen, you never know what’s going to happen,” McKnight said.
One of the Monarchs’ underclassmen, sophomore Devin Askew led the way, scoring 19 points, including 11 in the second quarter. Junior Ryan Evans had 15 points and sophomore Willhelm Breidenbach and junior Aidan Purkop had 13 points each for Mater Dei.
The Monarchs came out with some incentive, Askew said.
“We started sharing the ball, playing more as a team,” Askew said. “We had a lot of energy coming off a loss in Chicago. We had to redeem ourselves. It was a fun trip, it was a great learning trip for us. We were in the game the whole game. We didn’t have our best shooting night but some players like Ryan Evans, Wilhelm (Breidenbach), Harry (Harrison Hornery) and Aidan (Prukop) all came through and we played as a team out there. It was a good loss, we learned from it.”
Mater Dei was able to turn up its play in the third quarter against Compton.
“We just focused more and started executing better and our defense stepped up a lot and we pressured the ball more,” Askew said.
Mater Dei hopes to keep improving this week as it prepares for the rugged Trinity League and then the CIF playoffs.
“I’d like to see us go as far as we possibly can,” McKnight said. “Hopefully we will make the open division playoffs and make a nice run at that. Our league is very, very tough and a lot of the teams are really improved so we’re going to have to play at a high level.”
Dennis Johnson and Camren Denson each scored 10 points for Compton (4-4).
MATER DEI TURNS IT UP A NOTCH IN SECOND HALF AND BEATS SEGERSTROM 70-21
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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