No. 3 Blackman, No. 5 Mater Dei to meet in 2014 Nike TOC finals

CHANDLER, Ariz. – With four of the top 10 teams in the Xcellent 25 in the Joe Smith Division at the Nike TOC, it was to be expected that the run-up to Monday's championship game would feature some toe-to-toe slugfests – and they started in the quarterfinals when No. 10 St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.) knocked off No. 2 Long Beach Poly (Calif.) 68-57 in game that featured 18 lead changes and three ties in the first half.

But that was just an appetizer, leading up to Monday's main course, the 5 p.m. championship game between No. 3 Blackman (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) and No. 5 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), featuring two of the top individual players in the country in Crystal Dangerfield of Blackman and Katie Lou Samuelson of Mater Dei.

Neither team, however, had an easy road to get there, as Blackman had to outlast St. Mary's 79-64 in the first semifinal Saturday afternoon and Mater Dei never quite got out of second gear in a 60-53 win over surprisingly tough Parkview (Lilburn, Ga.), which was unranked coming into the tournament.

That other semifinal spot was ticketed for Riverdale Baptist (Upper Marlboro, Md.), which had one week at No. 1 in the Xcellent 25 before dropping out in the last rankings – and will find it hard to return after going 1-2 in its first three games in Arizona.

That was supposed to make the road easy for Mater Dei, but after the Monarchs nearly doubled up Skyline (Dallas), 67-34, in Thursday's first round, they had their hands full with Fremont (Neb.) and Jessica Shepard before pulling away late, and then never could quite put Parkview away. Samuelson finished with 21 and Andee Velasco had 15 against Parkview, including eight of eight from the free throw line, but Victoria Harris and Raven Johnson both had outstanding games to keep the Georgia girls in it until the end.

The key was their pressure, which continually forced turnovers, and every time it looked like Mater Dei would pull away, mistakes would reel the Monarchs back in.

Such mistakes will be deadly against Blackman, which is the defending national champion and started this season No. 1 before getting upset by Potter's House Christian of Florida in its third game of the season. Wins over No. 12 Elizabethtown and No. 14 Myers Park moved the Blaze back up the ladder, and the steady performance against the unrelenting trapping and physicality of St. Mary's is further proof they belong at or near the top of the rankings.

Dangerfield sliced and diced the feared St. Mary's press, and fed Alex Johnson over and over and over and over again – and Johnson scored 34 points, all within 8 feet of the basket and most of them layups after precise entry passes from Dangerfield and MeMe Jackson.
 
The game was close, though, until midway through the second quarter, when Blackman went on an 8-0 run to break a 26-26 tie, and St. Mary's never got closer than four thereafter. It didn't help that superfrosh Aquira Decosta was in foul trouble the whole game, which hurt the Rams at both ends of the floor.

Mi'Cole Cayton led St. Mary's with 15 points, but Jazz Bond had 16 for Blackman and every time it seemed like the Californians would make a run, Dangerfield would score, block a shot or make a perfect pass to blunt the rally.

But there's more to the last day of the Nike TOC than the Joe Smith Division title game. Four other championship games will be played at Hamilton High, all of them involving teams that have survived some of the toughest competition any tournament has to offer.

First up will be Horizon Christian Academy (San Diego), led by Dijonai Carrington, against West Campus (Sacramento, Calif.), a school with an enrollment below 200 that has finally made it through to the championship game, this one at 10:20 a.m.

Lutheran (Parker, Colo.) and Clovis West (Fresno, Calif.) are next at 11:40, Horizon (Thornton, Colo.) and La Jolla Country Day (Calif.) follow at 1 p.m., and then Southern California stalwarts Brea Olinda (Brea, Calif.) and Windward (Los Angeles) go at it at 2:20 p.m.