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High School Sports

Top-ranked Mater Dei beats No. 2 St. Benedict’s Prep

By Ben Bolch

SATURDAY’S RESULT

No. 1 Santa Ana Mater Dei 73, Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s Prep 61

Leading contributors: Senior forward David Wear scored 18 points and junior guard Tyler Lamb had 17 for Mater Dei in the featured game of the Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei. Sophomore guard Tavon Sledge scored 17 points for St. Benedict’s Prep.

The scoop: Mater Dei took a 10-point lead near the end of the first quarter and was never threatened.

Why it matters: Mater Dei, the No. 1 team in the USA Today national rankings, knocked off the second-ranked Gray Bees and took a significant step toward an undefeated season. “The playoffs are going to be very challenging with the Dominguezes, the Westchesters and the Riverside Kings,” Monarchs Coach Gary McKnight said. “We’ve got a lot of challenges in front of us.” Still, Mater Dei showed it could defeat a quality opponent without injured forward Andy Brown.

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Records: Mater Dei 24-0, St. Benedict’s 19-2.

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Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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