Girls’ basketball: Mater Dei hopes to lance a bad memory

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Mater Dei may be thinking about its game Friday against Mira Costa, but ... oh, who are we kidding, there’s no way Mater Dei is looking that far ahead. Not when the Monarchs play host to Orange Lutheran on Thursday.

Lutheran (16-6, 3-3) stunned Mater Dei (20-3, 4-2) in the first round of Trinity League play by posting a 40-34 victory on Jan. 15. It was Mater Dei’s second loss in a row and proved conclusively that the team, being rebuilt by three-time state championship Coach Kevin Kiernan (while at Troy), can’t win simply by showing up.

No. 17 Mater Dei already avenged its 44-42 loss to Santa Margarita (20-3, 6-1) with a 47-44 victory last week. Now, the Monarchs will try to do the same with Lutheran, an under-the-radar squad that lost to No. 18 Santa Margarita, 31-28, on Tuesday.

Last time they played, the first quarter ended with Mater Dei holding a 4-0 lead. That’s right, 4-0. There was some fierce defense being played by a couple of schools whose offense is not their calling card.

Santa Margarita can clinch the league title outright with a victory over No. 25 JSerra (18-7, 3-3) on Thursday.

-- Martin Henderson

-- Image from www.fabuloussavers.com