It was a concern.
How would top-ranked Mater Dei handle an off night from standout senior Katie Lou Samuelson?
The Monarchs appeared to find an answer Tuesday night on the road against No. 4 JSerra in a 51-18 rout in the Trinity League opener for both teams.
JSerra trailed by a point midway through the first quarter, but the Mater Dei defense dominated the rest of the way, fueling a 32-0 run in the win.
The Monarchs (15-1, 1-0), considered by many to be the top team in the nation, held JSerra (12-4, 0-1) scoreless in the second quarter and without a field goal from the 3:55 mark in the first quarter to the :11 mark in the third.
Samuelson scored a game-high 17 points, but did so on 6-of-19 shooting. The scoring total was a season-low for Samuelson and well below her season average entering the game (31.5 points per game), but Mater Dei still dominated after the first quarter to win its 55th straight league game.
“That’s why we’ve played the schedule we played – we’ve played all kinds of teams,” Mater Dei coach Kevin Kiernan said. “We wanted to know what would happen in any kind of situation. Tonight, we needed defense and we had to play good defense. (Samuelson) was a little off, but she grinded through and played good defense.”
Mater Dei point guard Andee Velasco picked up some of the slack with 15 points, but the Monarchs’ biggest advantage was on the boards. Mater Dei outrebounded the Lions, 43-25, including 15 offensive rebounds, allowing the Monarchs to take almost twice as many shots as JSerra.
The Lions’ most notable absence was star senior Coco Miller, who played her first two games of the season last week in nonleague play. JSerra coach Mary Rossignol decided to hold the senior out Tuesday as a precaution. Miller has been cleared to play after a knee injury she sustained over the summer, but still isn’t at 100 percent.
Senior forward Kaitlyn Reis provided most of the scoring for the Lions, with a team-high eight points, but JSerra also got a solid performance from senior center Megan House, who had six points to go along with 10 rebounds and three blocks.
“A lot of what (House) does doesn’t show up in the scorebook,” Rossignol said. “Her and Kaitlyn are a great tandem and we’ll keep pounding it inside.”
In the Sunset League:
Fountain Valley 70, Edison 55: The Barons (15-3, 2-0) had four players score in double figures, led by Andie Kristinat, who had 17 points on five 3-pointers. The Chargers (10-7, 1-1) were paced by 12 points from Jackie Bento.
Los Alamitos 56, Huntington Beach 38: Senior guard Dani Iwami had 22 points to push the Griffins (13-5, 2-0) to a sizable victory over the defending league champion Oilers (12-5, 0-2), who got 14 points from Frankie Wade-Sanchez.
In the Century Conference:
Foothill 77, Yorba Linda 46: The Knights (14-2) outscored the Mustangs (2-10) in every quarter and got a game-high 27 points from Blaysen Varnadoe and 21 from Kaylani Maiava.
Contact the writer: jbalan@ocregister.com
