Basketball regionals: Rosary girls, Mater Dei boys play for titles

Two Orange County Catholic schools reached the finals of the CIF Southern California Regional Tournament with semifinal wins March 2.

In the girls’ playoffs, Rosary Academy beat Troy of Fullerton 63-46 at Servite High School in Anaheim. The Royals trailed 30-27 at halftime, but outscored Troy 26-12 in the third quarter to take command.

And in boys’ action, Mater Dei beat Centennial of Corona 67-54. Sophomore Nick Davidson and junior Adrian Prokop each scored 16 and sophomore Harrison Hornery added 14 as the sixth-seeded Monarchs took control early and held the lead throughout.

Both schools will play in Regional finals March 5:

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• Rosary (25-8) plays La Jolla Country Day School (22-11), 7 p.m. at Servite.

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Mater Dei (29-4) takes on Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth (30-3), the nation’s top team as per Maxpreps, 7 p.m. at Simi Valley High School.

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In other girls’ Regional semifinal action, Mater Dei (28-4), fell behind early and lost 68-43 to top-seeded Clovis West of Fresno. And three Catholic boys’ teams were defeated in the semifinals:

CIF-Southern Section D-1 champion Santa Margarita lost its Division I semifinal to No. 1 seed Etiwanda 50-41.

In Division IV, Providence lost 50-41 to Silverado of Victorville.

And in Division V, Santa Clara, the CIF-SS D-5AA champion, saw its season end with a 66-42 loss to Foothill of Bakersfield.

Winners on March 5 qualify for the state championships later this week against the Northern California Region champions.

Mike Nelson is the former editor of The Tidings (predecessor of Angelus News).

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