Boys’ basketball: Reinhardt sparks Mater Dei win

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

Katin Reinhardt made the second of his four three-pointers to give Mater Dei its first lead, 27-26, with 1:10 left in the first half and the Monarchs never looked back, cruising to a shockingly easy 72-55 upset over top-seeded Long Beach Poly in the semifinals of the Division I regional playoffs at Long Beach City College.

Reinhardt finished with 24 points and Xavier Johnson added 15 for fourth-seeded Mater Dei (30-3), which will take on Corona Centennial in the regional championship game next Saturday at USC’s Galen Center. The winner advances to the state final the following Saturday in Sacramento.

‘Our coaches told us after the first quarter that we’ll be fine, we’ll get back in it and that settled us down,’ Reinhardt said. ‘Everyone contributed. Everyone wanted it. No one wants to go home. We missed out on [CIF] so now we have to go get the state title.’

Johnson fouled out on an over-the-back call with Mater Dei ahead 58-46 with 5:20 remaining in the fourth quarter and the score was the same when teammate Eli Stalzer fouled out with 3:11 left.

‘He told me when he [fouled out] ‘Get this win for me,’’ Reinhardt said. ‘We got each other’s back. He’s always come up huge for us so I didn’t want to let him down.’

Alex Carmon led the Jackrabbits (31-2) with 15 points, Ryan Anderson had 13 and Roschon Prince added 11 before fouling out with 1:12 remaining.

-- Steve Galluzzo