Mater Dei survives tough test from Taft

SANTA ANA - For Mater Dei, it’s 3 down, 2 to go.

Mater Dei beat the state’s No. 3-ranked Taft of Woodland Hills, 75-73, Saturday and now gets ready to play No. 2 Westchester.

Mater Dei, No. 1 in calhisports.com’s California rankings, will play Westchester next Saturday at 8 p.m. at USC's Galen Center in the CIF Southern California Regionals Division 1 championship game. (Read our preview)

Mater Dei (32-1) got quite a challenge from Taft (26-6) in Saturday’s semifinal at Mater Dei. Taft took a 68-67 lead with 2:26 remaining on a fast-break dunk by De Andre Daniels, a play that had the potential to swing momentum in Taft’s direction for good. The Monarchs regained the lead on two free throws by Gary Franklin, then Mater Dei’s Tyler Lamb made a 3-pointer with 1:21 left to give Mater Dei a 72-68 lead.

Lamb’s shot turned out to be the one that was the final momentum maker in a game in which there were 15 lead changes.

“I didn’t think about it,” Lamb said about the 3-pointer. “I just let it go.”

Lamb scored a team-high 21 points. Franklin scored 19, Katin Reinhardt scored 15 and Keala King had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Mater Dei.

King and Reinhardt combined on the play that put the game away. King rebounded a Taft miss on the defensive end, then fired an outlet past to a sprinting Reinhardt who made a layup to give the Monarchs a five-point lead with 26 seconds to go.

Franklin said Taft was the best team Mater Dei has played, even better than the team that beat the Monarchs in December, Gonzaga of Washington D.C.

“Taft’s a good team, with great talent,” Franklin said. “We knew we had to be at our best tonight.”

Both teams shot 50 percent from the field. Pierson Williams led Taft with a game-high 24 points.

“That was a very challenging game,” Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight said. “They challenged us at every position. Everybody plays at a higher energy level when they play us, and coming here to our gym, Taft knew they had to be focused.”

Mater Dei takes a 26-game winning streak into the game against Westchester, which beat Taft in the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division 1 championship game.

“We can’t wait to play Westchester,” Franklin said. “We know they’re very athletic. They’re defending state champions, so we have to give them that type of respect.”

Mater Dei has won 11 CIF Southern California Regionals championship games, the most in state history. The last time Mater Dei won a Regionals, in 2008, it then went on to win a state title. Westchester (30-3), which beat Long Beach Poly, 67-53, in Saturday’s other Division 1 semifinal, presents quite a roadblock.

“This is the dream matchup everybody wanted,” McKnight said.