Here’s a bit of prep basketball trivia: The Mater Dei Catholic High School girls basketball team won the state championship in 2009 without winning a San Diego Section championship. Certainly, though, the Lady Crusaders played like champions, as they later proved in Sacramento.
Mater Dei Catholic had a second chance to win a section title in 2014 but once again fell to nemesis Bishop’s.
The Lady Crusaders got a third chance to win a section championship last Friday night at the University of San Diego’s Jenny Craig Pavilion — and they didn’t waste the opportunity this time. But, man, was it close.
Mater Dei Catholic, seeded third in the Division I field, hung a 55-54 defeat on fifth-seeded San Marcos to exorcise some past ghosts and, in the process, add a long-sought championship banner in the school’s gymnasium.
MDCHS head coach David Monroe had to sigh in relief when it was all over; he said was “very happy” for his team despite what he termed a “hard” win.
“The girls have worked hard all year and deserve to end the regular season with a CIF championship,” he said. “They have adopted the never quit mentality while on the court and it is paying off. They could have easily given up when we were down by 10 points in the game, but didn’t. They pulled it together by challenging each other to make plays, and that they did to win the game.”
At first, things didn’t look promising for the Lady Crusaders, who finished runner-up to arch rival Eastlake in the Mesa League standings.
Mater Dei Catholic sophomore standout Chloe Webb, the team’s leading scorer with 18.8 points per game, failed to score a point in the opening quarter. Monroe has to be thankful there are four quarters in a game as Webb made up for her early scoring dearth with a hot hand in the remaining three quarters.
She proved particularly deadly down the stretch as the Lady Crusaders erased a 47-46 San Marcos lead with just under five minutes to play.
The game featured six lead changes in the second half. Webb scored the deciding basket after grabbing her own rebound and converting the missed shot. Webb matched her season scoring average with 18 points in the game after all.
With so much energy expended during the nerve-racking game, victorious Mater Dei Catholic players were speechless after the final horn sounded.
Hugs, cheers and tears told the story.
The Lady Crusaders improved to 21-11 with the hair- (and banner-) raising win; the Lady Knights fell to 19-11 with the loss.
State playoffs
Mater Dei Catholic received the No. 7 seed in this week’s Southern California regional Division III tournament, tipping off the state playoffs Wednesday against 10th-seeded JSerra Catholic in a double-header with the Crusader boys (who were seeded eighth in Division II and hosted ninth-seeded Harvard-Westlake).
The winners advance to Saturday’s division quarterfinals.
STATE REGIONAL TOURNAMENT
Girls Basketball
(7) Mater Dei Catholic 60, (10) JSerra Catholic 39
Boys Basketball
(9) Harvard-Westlake 59, (8) Mater Dei Catholic 51
