ANAHEIM – Mater Dei’s boys basketball team relied on its freshmen players more than it usually has during Gary McKnight’s 41 years as the team’s coach.
“I’ve never played freshmen so much in my life as I did this year,” McKnight said.
To win the bigger high school games, though, it’s almost always required that a senior plays a crucial role.
Senior Zack Davidson played that role Saturday, as he scored 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the Monarchs’ 66-53 win over Etiwanda in the CIF-SS Division 1 championship game at Honda Center.
It is the 24th CIF-SS boys basketball championship for Mater Dei. All of them have been won during McKnight’s tenure as head coach. The 24 section championships set a California boys basketball record. Going into this season Mater Dei and Edison of Fresno were tied for most section championships with 23 each.
McKnight-coached Mater Dei teams have won CIF championships in five different decades starting with the first in McKnight’s first season, 1982-83.
Mater Dei (27-6) and Etiwanda (25-5) continue the season next week in the CIF Southern California Regional. Both teams qualified for the regional when they advanced to the CIF-SS semifinals.
Davidson, a 6-8 forward who signed with Montana, made 8 of his 12 shots and was 11 of 13 at the free-throw line.
Mater Dei as a team shot 47 percent from the floor and was 24 of 30 at the line. The Monarchs had many more free-throw opportunities than Etiwanda, which was 5 for 8 at the line.
The two Mater Dei freshmen who played the most minutes and made the most contributions this season were 6-3 Luke Barnett and 6-8 forward Brannon Martinsen, and they both were outstanding for Mater Dei on Saturday. Barnett scored 12 points and Martinsen scored nine points with five rebounds.
Etiwanda was led by senior forward Curtis Williams, who scored 17 points, and senior guard Jimmy Baker, who scored 16 points. Etiwanda shot 38 percent from the floor and committed 15 turnovers to…
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