Mater Dei girls beat Brea Olinda to reach state title game

LOS ANGELES - Mater Dei girls basketball coach Kevin Kiernan has been trying to come up with game plans to beat Brea Olinda since the 1990s, and more often than not his teams fell short against the Ladycats.

The Monarchs' only two losses in the past two seasons have come against Brea Olinda. Both times Mater Dei was ranked No. 1 in the nation by ESPN and both times the Ladycats found a way to beat the Monarchs.

Kiernan said if he only focused on those losses to the Ladycats he'd be walking around like a zombie.

Mater Dei exorcised its Brea Olinda demons with a 51-46 victory in the CIF Southern California Division 2 regional finals on Saturday afternoon at USC's Galen Center.

Click here to see photos from Saturday's regional final.

The Monarchs earned their first trip to the state finals since 1996 and will play Carondelet of Concord for the championship on Friday at 6 p.m. at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.

Kiernan didn't want to acknowledge that Brea Olinda had gotten into his head, but star guard Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis did. She said the previouse two losses against the Ladycats were "heartbreaking."

Brea Olinda beat Mater Dei, 44-38, in last year's regional final and went on to win the state championship, and the Ladycats beat Mater Dei again, 47-43, at the Tony Matson Memorial Classic on Jan. 18.

"It's always in the back of our minds that Brea beat us," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "Brea is the only team that's beat us in the past two years. That's the team that's had our number the past two years. We just gotta move forward and try to get better. I think that's what we've been doing ever since we lost to them earlier this season.

"Luckily, tonight we played hard and got the win."

Both coaches said the game was sloppy. The two teams combined for 40 turnovers and the Monarchs were 13 of 29 from the foul line. But it was also a hard-fought contest and compelling throughout. There were nine lead changes in the first half alone.

The Ladycats jumped on Mater Dei's early miscues and gott off to a 9-2 lead to start the game. It looked as if Brea was off and running, but the Monarchs closed the opening quarter with a 10-2 run to take a 12-11 lead.

The Ladycats were playing without star point guard Alexis Perry, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL in the regional quarterfinals. Keitra Wallace did an admiral job filling in for Perry and Jeanier Olukemi was as active as ever on offense and defense.

Kelsey Harris knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the first half and Brea Olinda got solid contributions from senior Breana Buczek and Amber Vandeudekom. It was enough to give the Ladycats a 25-23 lead at the half.

"I never felt comfortable that we were going to win today," Sink said. "The first time we played them I did. Today I felt like we had our chance to win. We started very well."

Brea Olinda's lead grew to six points in the third quarter before the Monarchs' Jessica Duarte knocked down a 3-pointer and Jordan Adams scored off an offensive rebound to cut it to 36-35 with 2:07 left in the third quarter.

Mater Dei had a 36-27 edge on the boards over the Ladycats and that played a huge role in the fourth quarter.

Mater Dei finally took the lead on an offensive putback by Adams, who didn't practice all week because of a hamstring injury, with 4:55 remaining.

"I knew that even when we were up there was a possibility that they could come back," Adams said. "With all the missed free throws that's always a possibility.

"I had to look at all of them and say, 'This game isn't over.' But there was a point at the end of the third quarter I looked at Kaleena and Jessica and said, 'We got eight minutes to do this.' I guess we just took off from there."

Brea Olinda continued to battle the Monarchs, but Mater Dei took the lead for good when Alex Thomas scored on a putback off a missed 3-point attempt by Mosqueda-Lewis. That gave the Monarchs a 47-45 lead with 2:24 left.

Brea Olinda turned the ball over three times and only got off two shots in the remainder of the game.

There was a controversial moment with 30.5 seconds left when Harris was fouled on a 3-point attempt. One referee held up three fingers to indicate Harris was fouled and would get three shots at the free throw line. She made 1 of 2 free throws but wasn't given a third attempt. Sink argued the call and got a technical. Mater Dei missed the free throws, but retained possession. It was a four-point game at the time.

Duarte had a game-high 17 points and Mosqueda-Lewis finished with 16 points. Olukemi had 12 poits and 12 rebounds to lead Brea Olinda.

The Mater Dei players celebrated by holding up a No. 10 jersey in honor of late Monarchs softball star Bri Matthews, who committed suicide earlier this month.

"Ever since she passed away she's been part of our team," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "She's very important to all of us on the team. She's been our motivation."