Nike TOC girls basketball: Mater Dei, Long Beach Poly to meet in finals

PHOENIX, Ariz. — For all the talk of the national feel of the Nike TOC in Arizona, Saturday's championship game in the elite Joe Smith Division will come down to two Southern California teams that have been battling each other for local supremacy for most of this century.

Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) wore down Saint Mary's (Albany, Calif.) and pulled away in the second half for a 66-53 win, while on the other side of the bracket, Long Beach Poly survived against physical and intense St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.), taking the lead for good with 2:09 left and going on to a 72-64 victory.

Mater Dei, as always, was led by the spectacular Katie Lou Samuelson, who had a quiet 30 points with seven three-pointers, and reminded observers more and more of WNBA star Elena Delle Donne. Samuelson, the youngest of three sisters (the older pair play at Stanford), is a little shorter than Delle Donne (6-3 to 6-5) and not quite as silky smooth, but has the same unlimited range and the toughness to go inside.

Though Samuelson puts up the big numbers, Jayde Woods drew the assignment of guarding St. Mary's star Gabby Green and Peyton Langston had 12 points in a solid all-around effort.

The game was close in the first half, with St. Mary's leading by four after the first quarter, but Mater Dei coach switched to a 2-3 zone most of the rest of the way, and it made things harder for the Panthers.

"It helps us with our foul trouble, and it helps us with our lungs," said Kiernan afterward. "We're exerting so much effort because these teams are so great that we do get tired.

"The zone also seems to settle us down and slows the pace of the game. We're not as good at three-point shooting (as last year). We're not going to rack up 80 or 90 points like St. Mary's Stockton – we can't do it."

They did manage 66 against St. Mary's, steadily pulling away in the second half. In fact, the Panthers lost the lead with 3:30 left in the second quarter, and never regained it, as they struggled to mount an attack against the zone – and every time they got close, it seemed that Samuelson buried a three to slow their momentum.

The second semifinal of the night was controlled by St. Mary's of Stockton from early in the first quarter to 6:23 of the third period, when the Rams built a 39-31 lead. After that, though, Long Beach took control, using its superior depth to finally wear down St. Mary's.

"I don't think he went to his bench as much (as we did)," said Jackrabbit coach Carl Buggs of counterpart Tom Gonsalves. "And he played his starters longer, and I think that helped us. We played 12 today. I played a couple kids who haven't played hardly at all and they did a good job."

He also got 16 second-half points from 6-3 freshman Ayanna Clark, who often found herself alone under the basket when Poly broke the St. Mary's press. But even though the Jackrabbits finally took a lead late in the third quarter, they could never put the Rams away.

"We knew what to expect, we just have to execute," said Buggs. "We hit some stretches when we didn't get our spacing and played right into their hands. Then they got some steals and started hitting some threes – that's what they do."

In the end, though, they didn't do it enough, and after Charise Holloway tied the game at 61 with an old-school three-point play, Poly finished the game on an 11-3 run as St. Mary's just couldn't get a shot to drop.

That sets up the final between Mater Dei and Long Beach Poly at 6 p.m. Saturday at Hamilton High School in Chandler.

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There's a lot of talent, team-wise and individual, at the Nike TOC, and college coaches can be found in almost every gym, checking out new faces and making sure their already signed recruits feel the love.

But they too can get excited by a few special players, and one of those is Bianca Cuevas, who brought some New York City flash to Arizona.

Cuevas, generously listed at 5-foot-6 inches tall, was a blur in the open court and also has serious range. Her buzzer-beating third quarter 3-pointer from way beyond the arc keyed a Nazareth (Brooklyn, N.Y.) semifinal win over Etiwanda, which sets up a battle between the East Coast's top point guard and Windward (Los Angeles, Calif.) senior Jordin Canada, considered the best in the West, in the Blue Division final Saturday.

"It's a chance to show what we can do," said Cuevas of her team's trip to Arizona (they played in the West Coast Jamboree in Northern California the year before). "It's more physical here."

But to be physical with Cuevas, first you have to catch up to her, and that's easier said than done.

Cuevas will play for one of the great point guards of all time, Dawn Staley, at South Carolina, and she's looking forward to it.

"She's going to tech me because she's done it all," said Cuevas.

But even Staley in her prime didn't have the flash that Cuevas does.

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And all the talent isn't necessarily pure basketball.

If Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) guard Katie Lou Samuelson doesn't make it in basketball, she could easily have a career in acting. Her dramatic, I've-been-stabbed-with-a-rusty-knife collapse with 13 seconds left against Riverdale Baptist after, admittedly, some contact as she cut through the lane without the ball, drew a foul, and admiring comments from the college coaches.

After that near-death experience, she rallied to calmly knock down both ends of a one-on-one to give Mater Dei its game-winning points.

The Oscar nomination is certainly in the mail as well …

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Sierra Smith starts for St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.), which is unusual for a freshman -- but Smith should actually be in eighth grade. And only very recently turned 13.

What were you doing at age 12? Were you thinking about starting for a nationally ranked basketball team? I believe I was thinking about my next Big Mac.

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After Carondelet (Concord, Calif.) standout and Nebraska signee Natalie Romeo struggled in a first-round loss to Nazareth Regional, she fought back tears in the lobby, before bouncing back to score 23 points Friday in a wildly entertaining, down-to-the-wire 78-75 win over Cleveland of Seattle.

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Finally, some perspective on the Nike TOC from Christ the King (Middle Village, N.Y.) legendary coach, Vince Cannizzaro.

"There's nothing in comparison to it as far as the quality of teams from across the country," he said. "There are high school tournaments that are very good, but they're more localized. Here you have a national tournament."

And the winner of the Joe Smith Division will have a taken a huge step on the path to a potential Xcellent 25 No. 1 ranking at season's end.

***

Hard-working fans can see many Nike TOC championship games Saturday at several sites. Here's how they stack up:

Black Division: Chandler (Ariz.) vs. South Mountain (Phoenix, Ariz.) at Perry High School, 6 p.m.
Mike Desper Division: Miramonte (Orinda, Calif.) vs. Grandview (CO) at Hamilton High School, 9 a.m.
Gray Division: Archbishop Wood (Warminster, Pa.) vs. Highlands Ranch (Colo.) at Hamilton High School, 12 p.m.
Red Division: Castle View (CO) vs. Marcos de Niza (Tempe, Ariz.) at Perry High School, 10:30 a.m.
White Division: Desert Vista (Phoenix, Ariz.) vs. Dobson (Mesa, Ariz.) at Hamilton High School, 10:30 a.m.
Silver Division: Indio (Calif.) vs. Pueblo County (Pueblo, Colo.) at Hamilton High School, 1:30 p.m.