Mater Dei 66, Sheldon 48

A great game, one suitable to be named "CIF State Championship" for about two and a half quarters got ugly real quick and the refs took over. The result, Mater Dei from Santa Ana (hometown of Dave Hester of "Storage Wars") has won its second straight Division I boys' title by beating the Huskies of Sheldon, 66-48.

I will give you a more in-depth story in Tuesday's Citizen, but here are the key facts in the Monarch's win:

• Katin Reinhart, 30 points (he'll be shooting lights out for UNLV next year) Sheldon had no answer for him. Dakarai Allen did his best to guard him.
• Total fouls = Sheldon 25, Mater Dei 13
• Starters that fouled out= Sheldon four (Allen, Iese, Thomas, Manning), Mater Dei one (Xavier Johnson)
• Field Goal Shooting= Sheldon 18-of-57 (31.6%) Mater Dei 24-of-54 (44%)

When Sheldon's big guys got in foul trouble, it was like their offense started de-railing. Mater Dei was the best team I saw all year. Give them credit for winning a state-record 9th CIF Championship.

On a positive note, expect Sheldon to return here next year. Only Kyi Thomas and Nate Iese graduate. They'll have to find a beast rebounder like Iese (who had 12 boards Saturday), but the rest of the Huskies will be back.

Here's the podcast of head coach Joey Rollings' post-game interviews: 

Also, in the words of Joe Davidson tonight: The referees should be forced by CIF to watch the televised tape-delay broadcast of the game to see the lousy job they did.

Score by Quarters:

Mater Dei      21  12  12  21 - 66
Sheldon         18  9    11  10 - 48