SoCalHoops High School News

CIF SS Division I-A Championship:   Mater Dei Gets
Revenge Over Glendora, 46-40--(March 6, 1999)

This stuff is going to be a little rough because we're banging it out on a portable with a tiny keyboard from the press room at the Pond, so bear with us.

We should have expected this.   The game result that is. Mater Dei v. Glendora, the Sequel.  For the second time this season, these two teams were going to face each other again, and at the same location, and it had been almost 3 months to the day that they had squared off at the Wooden High School Invitational.  Of course, Glendora won that one.  They weren't so lucky this time.

In a game which saw Glendora and the Southern Section's all-time leading scorer hit for only 4 points in the second quarter, and just one point in the fourth, it was no wonder that Mater Dei, playing on home territory, claimed the victory, and with it their seventh Southern Section Title in 8 years. This was a hard-fought win and Glendora went down hard.  Proud, but they fell to the No. 15 ranked team in the nation, Mater Dei.  They could still meet up again in the Southern Regionals of the State Tournament, which begins next Tuesday, but in order for that to happen, Glendora is going to have to put out an all-points bulletin for the real Casey Jacobsen, because somebody must have kidnapped him on the way to the Pond.  Yeah, that guy wearing No. 23 for Glendora sorta looked like him, but he sure didn't play like the real Casey Jacobsen.

Mater Dei started Sufi, Soderberg, Derrick Mansell, Mike Bayer and Scoggin. Glendora started Jacobsen, Hatch, Michael Ahmad, Chris Clark, and Chad Clark.

In the first quarter, Casey Jacobsen was a man on a mission, and the mission was to take Mater Dei, and every one of their players,  out of the game, both physically and mentally, any way he could. He harrassed Sufi, he badgered Scoggin, hammered Bayer, and pounded his way to 11 first quarter points, and Glendora led 19-12 at the end of the quarter, but it really wasn't that close. Mater Dei trailed 17-6 with just a minute left,but Mike Strawberry, Jamal Sampson and Sufi all hit field goals in the last minute for the quarter end margin.

In the second quarter, Sufi was out, and Mansell was running the point, with McGuigan at one wing and Strawberry at the other. Mike Ahmad could just be one of the best unsigned senior 6'-9" guys around, and he handled Jamal Sampson like you'd expect an older player to handle the younger player.

But then a wierd thing happened. Casey picked up three fouls in rapid succession, one an obvious mistake by the ref, but it didn't matter as Mater Dei now had the psychological and physical edge it needed, as Jacobsen was forced to back off on defense. And Gary McKnight made the same defensive switch he had made at the Wooden Classic, telling McGuigan to shadow Jacobsen wherever he went.  The result was that Mater Dei scored another 12 points in the second quarter, while Glendora only scored 4.

Wait a minute. Glendora only scored 4 in the second quarter??? That's right. We had to ask everyone we were sitting near whether we were dreaming, but a few knowledgeable souls confirmed it, and when we saw the halftime stats (courtesy of those great guys who keep them for Mater Dei--thanks to Darren Halvorson and Steve Colton), we had to believe it.  The mighty Casey had not quite struck out, be the count was 2-and-2 with two men on for Mater Dei.  In the second quarter, Casey had indeed almost run out his string. At the half, Mater Dei was ahead. Sufi had 3, Mansell had 2, Scoggin 4, Sampson 8, Strawberry 2, Bayer 2, adn Soderberg 3;  for Glendora, Jacobsen still had the same 11 he had led off the first quarter with, Jason Davis had 2, Chris Clark had 2, adn Mike Ahmad had 6.  Glendora had 8 turnovers compared to Mater Dei's 4, and for the half, Mater Dei was shooting 10/24 from the field (.417) while Glendora was 9/28 (.321).

In the third period, Mater Dei stalled, and Glendora, well, they didn't exactly come alive, but Jacobsen did hit for another 5 points, and at the end of three, it was Glendora with the lead 39-34.

The fourth quarter saw a lot of sparring and shoving and some questionable foul calling by the refs.  The lead seesawed back and forth, but pretty much stuck with Mater Dei by one or two for most of the quarter.  We kept waiting for Jacobsen to come alive, for his shots to drop, but with McGuigan riding him like a cowboy rides a horse, and the refs letting him get away with it, Jacobsen never got a chance to show his stuff. With 1:46 to play and Jacobsen missing most of his shots in the 4th quarter, Mater Dei hung to a 2 point lead. With 1:05 on the clock, Glendora took the ball down and used up most of their posession, and Casey took a shot, and missed.   Mater Dei came back and Mansell, after using up most of the time on the clock, took a shot with 37 seconds remaining and it dropped, giving Mater Dei the lead at 40-42. Jacobsen took the next shot down the floor, but Mike Ahmad was called for a foul after Casey's shot didn't drop, and Mater Dei's Mike Bayer went to the line making two more to make the score 46-40, which was where it remained as time expired.

This was a tremendously coached game by Gary McKnight, who shrewdly put McGuigan on Casey, knowing exactly what it would do to the Southern Section's all-time leading scorer.  We asked McKnight after the game what the differences were in this game from the first time the two teams met, and he pegged it just right: "In the first game, we didn't have Jamaal (Sampson), and in the first game, McGuigan wasn't nearly as effective as he was tonight at stopping Casey.  McGuigan is just one heck of a tough player, and he thrives on assignments like he had tonight. It was a great challenge, and he lived up to it," coach McKnight told us.

The final scoring in this one was:  Glendora-- Chris Clark 4 points (2/10 from the field, 7 rebounds); Chad Clark 8 points (3/5 from the field, 2/4 from three point, 0/1 from the line); Jacobsen 17 points (4/17 from the field, 2/8 from three point, 7/10 from the line, 10 rebounds); Jason Davis 4 points (1/4 from the field, 0/1 from three, 2/2 from the line); Mike Ahmad 7 points (3/6 from the field, 1/2 from the line).

Mater Dei-- Imran Sufi 5 points (2/3 from the field, 0/1 from three, 1/1 from the line); Derrick Mansell 5 points (2/9 from the field, 0/4 from three pt, 1/2 from the line); Steve Scoggin 7 points (2/7 from the field, 0/3 from three pt, 3/3 from the line,  3 rebounds); Jamaal Sampson 15 points (6/10 from the field, 3/3 from the line, 13 rebounds); Mike Strawberry 4 points (2/4 from the field); Mike Bayer 5 points (1/5 from the field, 3/6 from the line, 3 rebounds); McGuigan 0 points (0/3 field, 0/3 three point, 4 rebounds); Erik Soderberg 5 points (2/4 from the field, 1/2 from the line). 

Mater Dei shot .378 (17/45)  from the field, 0/11 from three point range, and 12/17 from the line.  Glendora shot .271 (13/48) from the field, 4/16 from three point range, and 10/15 from the line. Here's the score by quarters:

Jamal Sampson was named the player of the game for Mater Dei, and Casey Jacobsen, who managed 17 points (a good day for a lot of other high school players) got the honors for Glendora.  Again, these two teams could meet up at the State Southern Regionals depending on the bracketing, but we're not holding our breath.   Because it's only going to happen if the real Casey Jacobsen is found alive and well. And for that, only time will tell.

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