The Mater Dei Catholic and Eastlake high school boys and girls basketball teams each earned a share of this year’s Metro-Mesa League championship titles after splitting a pair of games Friday night.
In a girls game played at Eastlake High School, Mater Dei Catholic avenged a first-round loss to the Lady Titans to secure a co-championship via a robust 74-62 win.
In a boys game played at Mater Dei Catholic High School, the visiting Titans held on for a 65-61 victory to finish in a first-place tie with the Crusaders.
All four teams expect to procure berths in the upcoming San Diego Section divisional playoffs.
The league title was the first for an Eastlake girls team since 2007, Still, EHS girls coach David Koopman had mixed feelings about sharing the banner.
The Lady Titans could have claimed this year’s Metro-Mesa title outright with a win Friday.
“Regardless of which team we share the banner with, I have mixed feelings about it,” he said. “I should be excited about the league championship, but at the same time, I don’t feel good about the way we played in this game.
“We came out on fire the first time we played them (Mater Dei Catholic) but we sure didn’t have it tonight. How many points did we spot them at the beginning of the game?”
The Lady Crusaders used a 12-0 run to steal the momentum in the high profile match-up, sending the visitors on to a 38-21 halftime lead.
Eastlake won the scoring edge in the last two quarter — 17-15 in the third quarter and 24-21 in the fourth quarter — but it proved to be a matter of too little, too late.
The Lady Titans made a heroic run to trim the MDC lead to nine points, 56-47, with 3:29 left in the fourth quarter, but excellent long-distance shooting by the Lady Crusaders kept them in the lead — and served to quite the rowdy home fans.
Taylor Young sank a three-point bomb to push the visitors up by 12 points, 59-47, with 3:11 to play. Young hit another try with 1:03 left in the game to expand Mater Dei Catholic’s lead to 66-52.
But the star player proved to be the Lady Crusaders’ Kristine Sellona, who poured in a game-high 28 points and dropped in four three-point shots.
Jordan Brasfield scored 20 points for Mater Dei Catholic, while Young had 11 points.
Four Lady Titans scored in double figures. Tara Clay led the hosts with 15 points, while Olivia Klugg and Jaeda Marsh, each had 12 points, and Quinesha Vanhook had 10 points.
The Lady Crusaders led, 53-38, at the end of three quarters.
Brasfield had the hot hand with 11 points in the first half while Sellona had nine points.
Both Mater Dei Catholic and Eastlake finished with 6-2 league records.
At 20-7, Eastlake is in line to be included in this year’s elite eight-team Open Division playoff field, though perhaps not earning a home playoff game. The top four teams receive home playoff games in the opening quarterfinals. The Titans are sixth overall in the power rankings and would be one of six teams in the division with at least 20 wins on the season.
Koopman hopes the loss to the Lady Crusaders gets his team refocused for post-season play.
“Based on our season, I do feel we deserve to be in the Open Division,” Koopman said. “But the way we played tonight, we should be in Division IX. If we play like we’re capable of, we can beat anybody. But if we play like we did tonight, we can lose to anybody.”
Meanwhile, Mater Dei Catholic coach David Monroe issued a sigh of relief after Friday’s big win by his team.
The Lady Crusaders dropped two league games this season — losing to Eastlake in the first-round of league action and dropping a second-round contest to Bonita Vista. Still, with two league losses, Mater Dei Catholic fought back to earn its 12th consecutive league title (either shared or outright).
“It’s been a long season,” Monroe admitted. “It feels like I’ve been playing with half a team for most the season. But we’re getting some people back, though we’re still missing our big (post) girl.”
Monroe said Onjalise Hillard is expected to have a MRI soon. If the news is bad, she could be lost for the rest of the season due to injury.
But all the news isn’t bad.
At 12-15, the Lady Crusaders could still be in store to land a top-eight Division I playoff berth.
“We’re going to be competitive in the playoffs, but without (Hillard), it’s going to hurt (us),” Monroe said.
The MDCHS coach said his team was definitely motivated in the rematch against the Lady Titans.
“Because Eastlake got us the first time, our girls wanted revenge,” Monroe said. “Eastlake played a hell of a game against us that first time. They caught us when we were down.”
Koopman made no excuses for his team. “We came out flat,” the EHS coach matter-of-factly said. “They absolutely beat us up for three quarters. We had a good fourth quarter, but you’re not going to beat many good teams with just one good quarter.”
In the boys game, Mater Dei Catholic needed to win to secure sole possession of this year’s league championship. However, the visiting Titans bounded out to a 10-point halftime lead: 35-25.
Both teams finished with identical 6-2 league records – and 16-10 overall records –and are in line to earn lower tier seeds in the Division I playoff field.
Mater Dei Catholic is ranked 13th among Division I teams while Eastlake is ranked 14th. The top 16 teams make the playoffs.
Power rankings
Lutheran is ranked No. 1 among Division V boys teams with its 21-1 record. The Knights finished 8-0 in Sunset League play. Chula Vista High Tech (16-5) is ranked fifth in the division. The top eight teams in Division V qualify for the playoffs.
Bonita Vista is ranked No. 1 among Division IV boys teams with its 18-11 record. The Barons finished 4-4 in Metro-Mesa League play. Hilltop (15-12) is ranked fourth in the division.
Metro-Pacific League champion Sweetwater (6-0 in league, 19-9 overall) is ranked sixth among Division II boys teams.
Metro-South Bay League champion San Ysidro (16-12) earned a spot in this year’s Division I boys field despite being ranked out of the top 16 teams in the division. League champions automatically qualify for post-season competition regardless of ranking.
The section playoff seeding meeting is Saturday. Post-season action tips off Tuesday, Feb. 24.
