Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight this week learned something about his team’s depth.
It’s good.
Mater Dei, minus two starters, defeated Orange Lutheran, 70-51, Friday in a Trinity League boys basketball game at Mater Dei High.
It was a matchup of the top two teams in the Orange County top 10. Mater Dei is No. 1 and Orange Lutheran is No. 2 in the Register media poll.
Starting forward MJ Cage (virus) and starting guard La’vette Parker (tumb injury) did not play Friday. Neither played Wednesday in the Monarchs’ win over Santa Margarita.
KJ Smith has been starting in Parker’s place and had a great week. After scoring 15 points Wednesday, Smith scored 16 points Friday.
Parker might play Monday when the Monarchs have a home game against Palm Desert. But he won’t start.
McKnight feels that Smith has earned the right to remain among the starting five.
“He stays in the starting lineup,” McKnight said. “He’s done really well. Other guys are going to have to play their way back into it.”
It was Mater Dei’s 42nd consecutive Trinity League win. The last time the Monarchs lost a league game was in the 2010-11 season when they lost at Orange Lutheran.
Orange Lutheran’s winning streak ended at nine games. The Lancers’ previous loss was to state No. 1-rannked Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland.
Rex Pflueger led Mater Dei (15-3 overall, 4-0 in league) with 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists. He scored 27 against Santa Margarita.
Mater Dei 6-foot-7 freshman Michael Wang, starting in Cage’s place, scored 11 points with six rebounds.
“These last six games,” McKnight said, “what we’ve done is play a lot of freshman. We had three on the floor at the same time tonight.”
Smith, the son of TNT basketball analyst Kenny Smith, would not acknowledge that Friday might have been his best game as a Monarch since transferring to Mater Dei from Oaks Christian of Westlake Village.
“Any game where we get the win is my best game,” Smith said.
Orange Lutheran (14-3, 2-1) had the lead at times in the first quarter. The Monarchs took a 15-12 lead into the second quarter and never trailed after that.
Orange Lutheran missed 11 of 20 free throws and committed 22 turnovers. Mater Dei made only eight turnovers.
Also in the Trinity League:
No. 3 Santa Margarita 64, Servite 55: Kaden Rasheed’s 18 points led the visiting Eagles (11-2, 2-1). Santa Margarita had a 21-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
In the Freeway League:
Buena Park 69, Sunny Hills 47: Deontae Beckham scored 26 points with 14 rebounds for the visiting Coyotes (15-2, 2-0). Cedric Dashiell II scored 13 points with 11 rebounds for Buena Park.
In the Sea View League:
Tesoro 62, San Juan Hills 52: Adrease Jackson scored 18 points and Nick Pallas added 17 for the visiting Titans (11-8, 2-0).
In the South Coast League:
San Clemente 59, El Toro 40: Sam Darnold scored 20 points with 10 rebounds for the host Tritons (11-6, 2-0).
In the Sunset League:
No. 9 Edison 52, Marina 41: Randall Walker’s 13 points paced the visiting Chargers (15-4, 3-0).
In nonleague:
Yorba Linda 70, No. 4 Canyon 66: Isaac Douglass scored 18 points and Eric Hezmalhalch added 16 for the visiting Mustangs (13-7).
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
