Mater Dei demolishes another top challenger

SANTA ANA - The difference between Mater Dei and every other girls basketball team in Orange County is each regular-season contest has the intensity, emotion and speed of a playoff game.

Guess that’s what winning consecutive national championships can do to a team.

With Oaks Christian of Westlake Village stopping by for a nonleague tilt on Saturday night, the Monarchs (20-2) squashed any chance of an upset by the state's 11th-ranked team with a dominating 78-51 victory over the Lions at Mater Dei High.

“We knew Oaks Christian would come out fired up and give us their best shot,” Monarchs coach Kevin Kiernan said. “That’s what playing here is all about. We want to compete against teams who want to compete against us.”

The Monarchs drained four 3-pointers and jumped out to 30-6 first-quarter lead before Oaks Christian (17-4) went on a 16-4 run to cut the deficit in half towards the end of the second.

However, Alexas Williamson scored the final five points of the half to push the lead to 17 by intermission.

Williamson finished with a game-high 23 points and hit four 3-pointers.

“Alexas was huge for us tonight,” Kiernan said. “Sometimes she can get lost behind everyone else, but if you leave her open, she’s making it.”

After exchanging a pair of baskets to start the second half, the Monarchs went on an 18-4 tear through the third quarter to push the lead to a then game-high 30 points.

“We treated tonight as a CIF (playoff) game,” Kiernan said. “We knew that if we had just gone through the motions we were going to get beat.

“We have to stay mentally tough and continue to get better each game.”

Nirra Fields finished with 20 points and Jordan Adams added 16 for Mater Dei.