State Prep Basketball Tournament Regional Finals : Mater Dei Gets a Shot at Fairfax

Memories:

--More than 12,000 fans at the Sports Arena for a high school basketball game between No. 1 L.A. Crenshaw and No. 2 Santa Ana Mater Dei in the Division I Southern California Regional title game.

--A girls’ ball, smaller than the one used by boys, being used by accident in the first half of the game.

--Red-in-the-face Gary McKnight, Mater Dei’s coach, standing on the court at halftime and screaming at the officials while the teams headed to the locker rooms--and not getting a technical.

--Crenshaw’s Stephen Thompson stopping the swinging elbow of Mater Dei’s Jim Dwyer with his face.

--McKnight eventually being kicked out with three technicals.

--Mater Dei having its 59-game winning streak broken in overtime.

--Crenshaw going on to claim its second straight State championship.

That was March 15, 1986. Today, a year later, the Southern California Regional title games are upon us again.

This time around it’s Fairfax (26-0) against Mater Dei (29-1) in the boys’ Division I game, scheduled for 8 p.m. as the grande finale to a day-long barrage of basketball at the Sports Arena. That’s City 4-A champion against Southern Section 5-A winner, No. 1 in the state against No. 2.

“The game was meant to be,” said McKnight, who is 145-7 with the Monarchs but has yet to reach the State championship game. “It’s the one everyone’s been waiting for.”

Said Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani: “This was one of our goals. We worked hard and got the City title. This is the second step that we set for ourselves.”

The third, of course, is a trip to and a win in Oakland against the Northern California winner next Saturday.

McKnight figures Mater Dei is the underdog, and that probably isn’t just sandbagging. The Monarchs, who lost to Flint Hill Prep of Oakton, Va., the No. 1 team in the nation according to one poll, by one point earlier this season, are a talented team again, especially with 6-11 center LeRon Ellis and swing man Kevin Rembert.

But Fairfax has its highly vaunted front line of Chris Mills, Sean Higgins and J.D. Green, and what are the chances that all three will go into a game-long slump the same night?

As Santa Monica Coach Cliff Hunter said after losing to Fairfax by 18 points in the semifinals Thursday at Cal State Dominguez Hills, “When Mills and Green and Higgins get going, what are you going to do? They have too many horses.”

In the Division I girls’ final at 6:15 p.m., Point Loma of the San Diego Section will be looking for its 58th straight win and fourth consecutive trip to the state title game against Huntington Beach Edison of the Southern Section 4-A.

Point Loma is 120-1 in the four years All-American Terri Mann has played there and 32-0 this season. Edison is 31-1.

The rest of the Sports Arena lineup:

Division II boys--Saugus (23-9) vs. Irvine Woodbridge (26-5) 4:30 p.m.

Saugus, only the second wild-card team ever to win a Southern Section title, has a tall order against Woodbridge and 6-8 center Adam Keefe. Saugus, with no one over 6-4, will be at a considerable height disadvantage against Keefe, who is averaging 22 points and 12 rebounds a game, and 6-7 forward Vince Bryan.

Forward Rusty Morse, averaging 17 points a game, is the only Saugus player scoring in double figures.

Division II girls--Cerritos Valley Christian (26-2) vs. Lompoc (27-2) 2:45 p.m.

This final matches another pair of Southern Section teams, 1-A champion Valley Christian against 2-A champion Lompoc in a game that features two big front lines.

Valley Christian is led by 6-3 center Kari Parriott, a three-year starter who is averaging 30 points and 12 rebounds a game this season. In the last two games, she has scored 75 points and taken down 32 rebounds. Donna Pollema, a 6-2 forward, is averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds a game.

Lompoc’s front line has 6-1 center Pam Coffey, plus twin sisters 6-1 Marie and 5-11 Nanette Fontaine. Coffey averages 16 points a game, Marie Fontaine 15 and Nanette Fontaine 11.

Division III boys--Santa Monica Crossroads (24-5) vs. Cerritos Whitney (25-2) 1 p.m.

How much can Whitney make up in a year? When the teams met last season for the title, Southern Section 1-A champion Crossroads ran over Small Schools champion Whitney, 94-60.

Whitney, which started five juniors last season, has its entire starting lineup back for another shot at Crossroads, which lost three starters.

The Roadrunners of Crossroads live up to their nickname, as they like to press and run the fast break. They will also have a considerable height advantage, since Whitney has no one over 6-5 to contend with 6-8 center David Wolfe.

Division III girls--Avenal (20-5) vs. Woodlake (21-5) 11:15 a.m.

Woodlake, the defending state champion, faces Avenal in a rematch of the Central Section Sierra Division championship game played two weeks ago. Woodlake won, 48-37.

Prep Notes For the fourth straight year, KDAY (1580) will broadcast the boys’ Division I game live. Pete Arbogast and Marques Johnson of the Clippers will call the action. . . . Brian Williams of Santa Monica St. Monica and Sean Higgins of Fairfax have been selected for the McDonald’s all-star basketball game, to be played April 12 in Philadelphia. They were the only Californians picked, with LeRon Ellis of Santa Ana Mater Dei notably absent. He will, however, play in the Dapper Dan game in Pittsburgh. . . . Kevin Franklin of Woodland Hills Taft won the state scoring title with an average of 31.6 points. Keely Brooks of City of Industry Workman was second at 31.4 and Darrick Martin of Long Beach St. Anthony was third at 30.4. Terri Mann of Point Loma was best among the California girls at 37.6. . . . Perry Carter, one of the top basketball prospects in the nation, announced he will sign with Ohio State. He is a native of Washington, D.C., but attends a prep school in Maine.