ONTARIO – La’vette Parker and Rex Pflueger combined for 45 points, and Mater Dei’s boys basketball team used the overall strength of its five-man unit to come away with a 73-62 victory over Chino Hills in the Open Division quarterfinals on Wednesday night at Colony High.
Junior MJ Cage added 18 points, 19 rebounds and three blocks to complement the efforts by Mater Dei’s guards. Pflueger finished with 23 points and nine rebounds, and Parker added 23 points and three 3-pointers.
The Monarchs (26-3), who are the defending Open Division champs, will host Etiwanda in the semifinals on Saturday.
A year ago, Cage, Parker and Pflueger were contributors but not the leaders of the team. That role belonged to Stanley Johnson, who is now starring for the University of Arizona.
“We’ve just taken on the leadership role,” Pflueger said of the trio. “I really wanted to establish myself as a main leader and keep us going, even when we got down by a little run by them.”
Mater Dei trailed, 15-14, at the end of the first quarter. Pflueger caught fire in the second quarter, shooting the Monarchs into the lead with 12 points in the period.
His team carried a 31-25 lead into halftime.
The Monarchs were given the task of trying to limit the damage that could be done by Chino Hills’ talented brother combination of Lonzo and LiAngelo Ball. Lonzo, a 6-foot-6 junior who has committed to UCLA, showed his explosiveness while putting up 27 points to go with 11 rebounds and four assists.
LiAngelo, however, struggled throughout for the Huskies (14-13). The sophomore finished with eight points.
“I think Pflueger had something to do with that,” Monarchs coach Gary McKnight said of the younger Ball’s struggles. “We had Rex guard him, (instead of guarding) Lonzo. We just tried to go committee on Lonzo because he’s going to be in the NBA.”
In the second half, Cage scored 14 of his points. His 10 points in the third quarter helped the Monarchs establish their first double-digit lead.
