SoCalHoops High School News

Mater Dei Knocks Off No. 1
Oak Hill, 84-72--(Feb. 3, 2002)

If you checked our SoCalHoops message board last night at or shortly after 9:42 p.m. then perhaps you caught the message we posted from the Pyramid along with all of the scores which preceded the Oak Hill v. Mater Dei.   At that moment, Mater Dei and Oak Hill were doing their warmups (and no, Oak Hill was not as entertaining as they were when the Warriors had John Humphrey, the human-highlight reel, who got up as high as anyone we've ever seen before or since while dunking).....but we digress.   In that message, we noted that,  "Mater Dei has nothing to lose and everything to gain by this one....we shall see....we shall see..."

Well, starting at 9:45 p.m. we all saw.    And Mater Dei proved that they can play with anyone, that they weren't going to get pushed around by the top team in the country,  and pulled off what Westchester couldn't at the Houston Academy Invitational tournament in December, beating the soon-to-be former No. 1 team in the U.S. and beating them decisively.

Mater Dei jumped out to a startling 8-0 blitzkrieg first quarter lead before Oak Hill knew what hit them.  And the most surprising thing was that they continued to hang on to the lead, never trailing in the game behind some truly stellar performances and great team play.   But within that great team effort were some truly special performances, including that from junior Wesley Washington.   Clark Francis of the HoopScoop was there, and it seems he is finally coming around to our point of view that Wesley Washington, if not the single best player, has to be the  most versatile scorer of any player in that class, and he proved it last night by collecting a game-high 25 points on a variety of fast-break drives to the basket,  a couple of authoritative dunks, and some nice pull up jumpers, and he dished out 7 assists to his teammates, helping them score too.  Mike Strawberry had 14 mostly quiet and efficient points, and   Harrison Schaen was big in the post, sealing his man and getting great position on some important plays, and he looked terrific, including helping out on the press break as he dribbled through double and triple teams to get the ball up court when Gerrity passed off to him off the inbounds.  Harrison had 14 points also, and Travonte Nelson finished with 12 points, including quite a few nice jumpers, and some smothering defense.     Mike Gerrity, Mater Dei's freshman point guard, really came of age as well last night, pushing the ball through Oak Hill's fullcourt pressure and making some pinpoint passes, collecting 9 asissts officially, while only committing 5 turnovers.

Oak Hill's star player, Carmelo Anthony, finished with 24 points, not a team high, and he didn't do much in the first half, seeming somewhat tired and overwhelmed by the speed with which Mater Dei's blitz hit the Warriors.   In fact the whole Oak Hill offense just never got going in the first half.    At the end of the first quarter, Mater Dei led 15-10, and at the half the Monarchs had a 33-28 lead.   At the end of the third, the Monarchs extended the lead even further, to 53-44.

When Anthony finally started to connect, he was impressive, but he also missed a ton of free throws at critical moments, going 1-6 from the line in the game, and ultimately in the final 2 minutes he collided with several players going for a rebound and wound up on the floor, where he had to be assisted after a several minute break in the game.   Oak Hill was led by Justin Gray who was a perfect 8-8 from the line and 7-15 from the field (3-8 from three),  and he finished with 25 points.  Anthony is definitely a huge talent, and if he spends two years at Syracuse where he's signed, Jim Boeheim will be a happy man, and we think Anthony would be better served in college, a view which several NBA scouts in attendance at the game shared with us privately.  "He's talented, there's no doubt about it," said one NBA scout of a Western conference team told us, "He's got a bit of Kobe or Kevin Garnett in him, but he's not quite where they were when they came out."  Sani Ibrahim also never really got it going, and finished with 12 points.

For us, this Oak Hill team just didn't seem to be as deep as some of the Oak Hill teams of the recent past, but perhaps that's just because we remember the other Oak Hill teams that came out here and consistently won.    But whether it was just our perspective, or a faulty memory, Mater Dei was really the better team last night, no doubt about it.

We've also read the messages on the board from those who evidently weren't there, complaining about the quality of the refs or who said Mater Dei was compelled to slow the game down, and neither are accurate assessments of this game.  The referees demonstrated no clear bias that we could see, and we wouldn't call a 26 to 21 foul differential overwhelmingly biased....besides, we always get a kick out of those who say, "Hey ref, call it both ways" because if one team is fouling more than the other, what obligation does the ref have to "call it even" ?  Consistent calls for both teams, but "evenly"?   Of course, that's not what Coach Steve Smith of Oak Hill was thinking last night, and since we were sitting directly next to the Oak Hill bench, there was plenty of shouting going on at the refs to "watch the hand checking...."  But this was one game where the refs really let everyone play, and that's exactly what happened before a near-capacity crowd as the Monarchs won their 14th consecutive game since losing three straight at the Schwab Oregon Invitational.

We could go on and on about what happened, but why bother.  This one was one of the truly great high school games, especially if you were one of the several thousand vocal Mater Dei fans in attendance.  Here's the official box score from the game:

Oak Hill

Mater Dei    18  18  20  21--84
Oak Hill  10  18  16  28--72

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