Morningside Boys Win, 53-46; Girls Defeat Washington : Monarchs Move On to the Finals

Even though their teams waged virtual war on the basketball court Thursday night, the coaches of visiting Morningside and host Corona Del Mar could agree on something in the post-game analysis: Playing each other twice in the span of three weeks was definitely to Morningside’s advantage.

Not one to pass up a chance at redemption, the Monarchs went out and avenged their loss to the Sea Kings in the Southern Section 3-A semifinals with a 53-46 victory before a packed house at Corona Del Mar.

With the victory Morningside (25-5) moves on to the Southern California Regional Division III finals Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Sports Arena against the winner of the Trabuco Hills-Lemoore game.

“No team has beaten us twice this season, and we talked about that quite a bit before the game,” said Monarchs co-Coach Ron Randle. “Revenge is sweet and you can’t put any kind of degree of emotion on that kind of thing. We emphasized over and over that we could beat them because no other team could beat us twice in a row.”

But it was hardly a leisurely stroll through this picturesque Orange County suburb for the Monarchs.

The game was up for grabs with just 31 second remaining when Chris Vance rebounded Jon Madison’s miss, scored, was fouled on the play and converted the free throw to give the Monarchs a seven-point cushion.

“It was one of the biggest plays I’ve made in my career,” said Vance, who led Morningside with 12 points. “My coach just told me to visualize the free throw going in, and it worked for me.”

Corona Del Mar Coach Paul Orris, who guided his team to a 57-56 victory over Morningside in overtime three weeks ago, knew beating the Monarchs twice constituted a tall order.

“It was certainly to their advantage because they had something to prove,” said Orris, whose squad finished the season at 21-11. “The first half the referees called more fouls, but in the second half they seemed to let the kids play and that worked to our disadvantage.”

Corona Del Mar controlled the first half by forcing the Monarchs into a half-court game. But the Sea Kings couldn’t shake Morningside and found themselves trailing, 23-22, at halftime.

That changed quickly as they went on a 10-2 run to open the second half and led 34-29 with 1:30 remaining in the third period.

Then Morningside caught fire, mounting a 10-2 run of its own, capped by Madison’s three-pointer at the buzzer that put his team ahead, 39-36.

The Sea Kings came right back to tie on Matt Cwertnia’s three-pointer, but Morningside struck back on Vance’s jumper.

Then Don Sanders found a way to penetrate and scored three lay-ups in a row while Corona Del Mar had to settle for four free throws from Cwertnia.

Madison scored with 1:07 left and appeared to have put the game out of contention with an easy layup attempt, but the ball bounced off the rim and into the hands of Vance, who sealed the contest for the Monarchs.

“It took us a while to start executing our game,” said Vance. “But once we got in sync, it was almost automatic.”

Sanders finished with 10 points and Madison contributed eight, while Cwertnia led all scorers with 14.