CHANDLER, Ariz. - St. Mary’s of Stockton (Calif.) had dodged two bullets already in the Joe Smith Division of the Nike Tournament of Champions, and early in the championship game of the event Tuesday, the No. 2 team in the nation Rams were down 28-13 to No. 1 Mater Dei of Santa Ana (Calif.).
Mater Dei's Taylor Spears doesn't back down from Chelsea Gray (3).
Photo by Mitchell Reibel
But not to worry: St. Mary’s came storming back, cutting the margin to eight by halftime, tying the game at 36 with 5:04 left in the third quarter, and then taking a 47-46 lead at the start of the fourth.
At that point, it seemed like the Rams were following destiny.
They had pulled off the nearly impossible in the semifinals, coming from eight points down with 58 seconds left in regulation to beat defending California champion Brea Olinda 67-66 in overtime, and from 12 down in the second half in the quarterfinals to slip past Memphis Central, 76-73.
Mater Dei, though, refused to fold, and sparked by the expected brilliance of Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (27 points, 12 rebounds, MVP of the Smith Division) and a surprisingly sparkling effort from Jessica Duarte (21 points, nine rebounds), the Monarchs went on a 12-2 fourth quarter run to eventually earn a 66-60 victory.
The win certainly will keep the Monarchs in the No. 1 spot in the Xcellent 25 rankings, and if Mater Dei can survive what promises to be a very tough road to the California Division II title in March, a national championship is there for the taking.
Especially with the return of 6-foot-1 Alexys Vaioletama from stress fractures. The Monarchs won in arguably the nation's top tournament without her, making the title that much more impressive.
"Today, we came out and showed we were No. 1," Mosqueda-Lewis told the Orange County Register. "We just took advantage of the opportunities given to us in this tournament. We came out and showed our talent."
St. Mary's guard Afure Jemerigbe tries to get to hoop.
Photo by Mitchell Reibel
Mater Dei came into its semifinal game relatively well rested, thanks to pummeling disappointing Hillsboro of Tennessee 78-30 in the first round and getting past Riverdale Baptist of Maryland, 66-56, in the quarterfinals. That set up a semifinal match with Southern California power Long Beach Poly, and once again, it was Mosqueda-Lewis who led the way with 22 points (15 in the first half, including the basket that gave the Monarchs a 28-27 lead they never lost).
Sophomore Jordan Adams added 14, but the win didn’t come easily. After Mater Dei built a 49-41 lead with 4:58 remaining, Poly went on a 6-0 spurt to get within two – but Lauren Rock hit two free throws with 50.9 seconds left to seal the eventual 56-50 win.
"Our team has felt like we were No. 1 since last year, even though we lost to (Brea-Olinda)," Mosqueda-Lewis told the newspaper, referring to the team's first and only defeat last season in the Southern Section Division II finals.
St. Mary’s did not have it quite so easy, and needed a near-miracle to survive Brea-Olinda’s balance.
Trailing 59-51 with 58 seconds left, the Rams hit three three-pointers down the stretch – including a game-tying dagger from senior Regina Camera (her only basket of the game) – to send the game into overtime.
Even after that disappointment, Brea refused to buckle, and tied the score at 64 with 1:28 remaining on an Alexis Perry drive. But Afure Jemerigbe made one of two free throws with 24.2 seconds left, and Chelsea Gray made a spectacular steal of the ensuing inbounds pass, was fouled, and drained two free throws to complete a 32-point night.
That put St. Mary’s up 67-64 with 13 seconds left, and when Gray fouled Perry 11 seconds later, the junior guard was at the line with two free throws.
She made both (though some thought an intentional miss of the second might have been a better play), the Rams inbounded the ball and time expired before Brea could foul.
Perhaps the strain of that win had something to do with Gray’s subpar performance in the finals (just nine points, three coming with 4.8 seconds left when the issue had already been decided), or maybe it was just that St. Mary’s had run out of miracles.
Mater Dei's Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis powered in 27 and earned MVP.
Photo by Mitchell Reibel
Or maybe Mater Dei was simply the better team.
Regardless, the Monarchs left Arizona with a trophy, a lock on the No. 1 ranking, and a clear, if difficult, path to a national title.
Other news and notes from the tournament.
* Oregon City took the tough Mike Desper Division, beating higher-ranked Sacramento 55-53 in the semifinals and Highlands Ranch of Colorado 70-57 in the finals. Ashleigh Anderson was the MVP for the defending Oregon champs.
* Desert Vista of Phoenix won the Blue Division, but otherwise it was all California: Agoura in the John Anderson Division, Harvard-Westlake in the Gray Division and LACES in the Black Division. In fact, California teams claimed 20 of the 24 semifinal spots in the six brackets.
* The most spectacular single-game performance had to belong to Piedmont’s (yet another California school) Saidah Allen. She had 40 points and 30 rebounds in a 64-61 overtime win against Rosary of, you guessed it, California.
* Usually, weather isn’t much of a topic in Arizona, except when it’s so hot that water boils in cars parked in the sun, but an unexpected rainstorm knocked out the power at Perry High School, and fouled up Saturday’s schedule. Eventually all the games got played, but some were delayed by as much as two hours.
* Maybe the most remarkable ending of the tournament came when Campolindo (Moraga, Calif.) played St. Francis of California in the winner’s bracket semifinals of the Blue Division.
Campolindo never led in the game until AFTER the final buzzer. The Cougars fought back from a 12-point, third-quarter defict : After coming back from a 12-point third-quarter deficit, the Cougars trailed by two when Amanda Forshay’s three-point attempt was in the air when the buzzer sounded.
She watched as the ball hit the front rim and the top of the backboard before settling in the bottom of the net for a dramatic 69-68 win.
Monday Smith Division
Mt. Lebanon (Pa.) 63, Memphis Centrall (Tenn.) 56
Christ the King (N.Y.) 70, Riverdale Baptist (Md.) 61
Norcross (Ga.) 45, ThunderRidge (Colo.) 34
Mater Dei 56, Long Beach Poly 50
Bolingbrook (Ill.) 57, South Eugene (Ore.) 47
Dillard (Fla.) 69, Hillsboro (Tenn.) 29
St. Mary's (Calif.) 67, Brea Olinda 66
St. Mary's (Ari.) 65, H.D. Woodson (D.C.) 48
Tuesday Smith Division
South Eugene 50, ThunderRidge 41
Dillard 69, St. Mary's (Ari.) 68
Mt. Lebanon 58, Christ the King 40
Bolingbrook 58, Norcross 47
H.D. Woodson 62, Hillsboro 34
Memphis Central 58, Riverdale Baptist 52
Third place: Brea Olinda 48, Poly 46
Championship: Mater Dei 66, St. Mary's (Calif.) 60
Monday Desper Division
Punahou (Hawaii) 63, Buena (Calif.) 50
Westbury Christian (Texas) 79, Tolleson Union (Ariz.) 72
Highlands Ranch (Colo) 71, Bishop Gorman (Nev.) 60
Oregon City 55, Sacramento 53
Tuesday Desper Division
Sacramento 62, Bishop Gorman 47
Westbury Christian 44, Buena 38
Tolleson Union 50, Punahou 45
Championship: Oregon City 70, Highlands Ranch 57
For complete results, CLICK HERE.
Mater Dei celebrates its hard-earned victory over St. Mary's and prestigious title at the Nike TOC.
Photo by Mitchell Reibel
