SANTA ANA, Calif. - The evening started with a standing ovation for the man they gathered to honor posthumously, and it ended with people on their feet.
They watched the No. 1 team in the nation, with the No. 1 junior and the No. 1 sophomore, lose to their No. 1 rival.
For the second season in a row, Santa Ana Mater Dei was unbeaten and sitting atop the national high school girls' basketball rankings, only to have Brea Olinda-- currently ranked No 3 in the nation – knock the Monarchs off their perch. This time, Brea spotted Mater Dei nine points to open the game, took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter, and held on to provide one very satisfying victory 47-43 at the Meruelo Events Center in Santa Ana Monday night.
Last year it came in the Southern California Regional finals when Brea scored a 44-38 upset. This year's version was much better played and it came at the Tony Matson Memorial Classic in which the teams could raise funds for the family of the former Brea assistant who went on to coach Orange Lutheran in the same league as Mater Dei.
“The same thing happened in the championship game when we were about to go to State,” said Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, the outstanding junior for Mater Dei who scored 24 points. “Every time we play Brea, we can't find something in us to finish the game.”
If this was supposed to be payback, one can only imagine how deeply Brea (15-2) is now in the head of Mater Dei (17-1), which is now 49-2 the past two seasons – with both losses to Brea. Most expect these teams to meet again in the Southern Regional finals for the opportunity to advance to the Division II State Championship game. When that happens, will Mater Dei have any inkling that it can actually beat the state's most successful program?
Kevin Kiernan may be an outstanding coach, but right now he may have to show how good of a psychologist he is.
“It's part of the Brea tradition,” Brea coach Jeff Sink said. “Nobody can blow us. Mater Dei is a better team, and Kevin does such a great job and I thought they were the better team tonight, but I thought down the stretch we kept our composure when we could have fallen apart, and we made some nice runs in the second quarter which I think shook them a little bit. When you're playing a great team like Mater Dei, you have to be able to get in their head a little bit. Your kids have to believe, and their kids have to feel a little bit of doubt, and I think that's what happened.”
As stunning as the result was for Mater Dei, especially after having a 9-0 lead to open the game, the final score might have been worse if Brea could have bought a layup in the fourth quarter or the officiating hadn't become more sensitive to the second-half action.
“We were down 9-0 and it seemed like 50,” Sink said. “It's ironic that it's the Tony Matson Memorial game. We're down 9-0, my assistants are going crazy and the kids look like they're going to die, and I just thought, 'What would Tony do?' He would laugh, he would quietly talk to his team. I took that timeout at 9-zip and I said, 'Listen, we can't play any worse, just relax, you're tight, take care of the ball, we'll hit a couple of shots and we'll get back in this.' We made a nice little run and if we hadn't I would have looked like a liar. That run to get back in the game saved us.”
The run featured the unsung hero of the game, Brea's fifth starter, Breana Buczek, who scored seven of the Ladycats' first 18 points, including a three-point basket to tie the score at 11-11. She is averaging 4.5 points per game.
Brea got 17 points from Jeanier Olukemi, nine from Alexis Perry and eight from Keitra Wallace. Olukemi's total included three in the fourth quarter after Mater Dei had pulled to within 42-40 with 4:31 to go. Then Perry hit a 15-foot fade-away jumper, Olukemi put away a rebound, and after Mater Dei's Alex Thomas hit a three-point basket to make it 46-43 with 2:48 remaining, Olukemi knocked down one of two free-throws.
Jordan Adams, the 6-foot-1 point guard regarded as the nation's best sophomore, scored four in the fourth quarter to finish with a modest seven points.
These two teams, who went man-on-man, figured to put on a fine defensive show, and there were a couple of pivotal moments in the fourth quarter. With Mater Dei trying to tie the score at 42 apiece, Lewis had her shot under the basket blocked by Brea senior Kelsey Harris; that led to Perry's jumper for a 44-40 advantage.
The next time down the floor, Lewis was blocked again, by Buczek. Lewis had been nine of 13 from the field to that sequence and hadn't been blocked; she finished nine of 15, but Mater Dei as a whole made only 16 of 42 (38 percent). Brea was much better, even though it made only two of 10 in the fourth quarter; the Ladycats made 18 of 32 (56.2 percent) going into the fourth quarter with a 42-32 lead, and finished 20 of 42 (47.6 percent).
“You're going to make some shots, you're going to miss some shots,” said Harris, who finished with six points. “The only thing you can control is defense and your hustle. Definitely, defense helped us win.”
Mater Dei's vaunted defense failed to produce the kind of results it has against lesser opponents as the Ladycats beat the press and kept the contest mostly in a halfcourt game.
Brea took a 14-11 lead in the first quarter despite Mater Dei scoring the game's first nine points, on Jessica Duarte's three-pointer, and Lewis' three-point play and three-point basket. Brea, which missed its first three shots and and committed four turnovers, scored 14 of the next 16 points as the Ladycats protected the ball and prevented Mater Dei from getting second-chance opportunities.
Brea continued its hot hand from the field in the second quarter, making five of seven from the field, including Olukemi's driving lefty layup with 1:20 left in the half that extended Brea's lead to seven points, 26-19. Lewis, who had 14 points in the first half, hit a 17-footer to make it 26-21 at halftime.
Brea-Mater Dei was the marquee game of three matchups, which included Villa Park beating Matson's old team, Orange Lutheran, 65-54, and Fullerton Rosary beating Santa Ana Foothill, 64-60.
“We were lucky to come in here and get a win, and I'm grateful,” Sink said. “And I just want to put the emphasis back where it should be. “I give this to the Lord and I give it to Tony. I would give anything to see his face on the sidelines with me again. I would give all these victories and everything away if I could have just one more moment with the nicest and best coach I ever met.”
Matson's wife, Heidi, addressed the crowd for 6 ½ minutes prior to the game as video of Matson played on the Mater Dei scoreboards on both ends of the floor. The crowd, which filled most of the Meruelo Events Center, rose to its feet in a prolonged ovation both before and after she spoke.
“To Kevin Kiernan and Jeff Sink, thank you for putting together such an amazing event to honor Tony's memory and support our family,” Heidi Matson said. “Knowing what fierce competitors you are, I want you to know the sacrifice of this contest is not lost on me.”
She concluded by saying to all those who attended, when you lay your head on your pillow tonight, rest assured that four females who bear the last name of Matson have thanked God for you.”
Matson coached Orange Lutheran for 10 years and took the program to the section finals last season for the first time since 1981. The game was a fundraiser for his family, which includes three daughters ages 10 to 17. When Matson died in April at age 44 of a heart attack, he had little life insurance, had just begun remodeling his home and had just started his own construction business.
Although it made no strategic sense for the two programs that are located only 7 ½ miles from each other to play each other now with a potential all-the-marbles game looming in March, the cause was worth it. They will play again next season as well, at Brea.
“When you look at the higher purpose and what we can do – there's no way a CIF or state game will be used as a fundraiser – this is the one opportunity to donate every dollar, in a game that everyone wants to see, to the family,” Sink said. “The only reason we're playing is because it's a fundraiser for the Matson family.”
