SANTA ANA — After losing four seniors to graduation and having one of its top returning players sidelined with an injury, Mater Dei girls basketball coach Jody Wynn has inserted several players into new roles.
One such player is junior guard Harmony Golightly, who appears to be adjusting nicely to her role as starter and has become a vocal leader on the court.
Golightly scored a game-high 24 points, including four 3-pointers, to help the Monarchs defeat Moreno Valley, 81-63, in a pool play game of the Mater Dei Holiday Classic on Friday at Mater Dei High School.
The Monarchs (4-0), who are ranked No.1 in Orange County, will play Oak Park for the tournament championship Saturday at 6 p.m.
Golightly said she was hard on herself after the first three games but was helped by the day off Thursday.
“The day off yesterday just gave me time to reflect,” she said. “Today, I just let go and let myself play and that worked.”
Junior forward Stella Hoss, the Monarchs’ only returning starter, scored 14 points, including eight in the fourth quarter to help the Monarchs pull away.
“I thought the environment was great,” Wynn said. “I thought Moreno Valley was great. They played tough. I thought we withstood the emotion of the game and the physicality of the game and made really good in-game adjustments with a young team and an inexperienced team.”
The Monarchs took a double-digit lead into the second quarter when a 3-pointer from Moreno Valley’s Bella Medina kicked off an 11-2 run to get the Vikings (3-1) to within a basket.
Hoss scored to build the lead back up to four, when Jamiyah Pearson’s basket got the Vikings to within two with under five seconds remaining in the half.
Golightly then hit a 25-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to put Mater Dei ahead by five at the half.
The Vikings, who reached the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals last season after going 10-0 in the Ivy League, opened the scoring in the third quarter with another 3-pointer from Medina.
But from there, the Monarchs took control and built a double-digit lead in the final minutes of the quarter and were ahead by 20 with two minutes remaining in the game.
“The difference was their ball pressure,” Moreno Valley coach Larry Wright said. “They sped us up. Also, we lost a couple of their shooters in the corners that really opened it up, so we had to come out of our base defense and then try some other things to help scramble them.”
Mater Dei standout Kaeli Wynn has missed all four games due to a knee injury and her return date is uncertain, Jody Wynn said.
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