Fledgling King Upsets Mater Dei

Riverside King, a school that opened its doors three years ago, had a vision of greatness when its boys’ basketball team played its first varsity game two seasons ago, a dream that became startling reality with a 70-65 upset Saturday over Santa Ana Mater Dei in the Southern California Regional Division II final at Long Beach Arena.

With the victory, King (30-4) became firmly steeped in state playoff lore, its fledgling program upending the school that has won four state titles and was making a record 13th regional championship appearance.

Marvin Lea scored 28 points, Leon Rosborough added 13 and King laid claim to a new reign against the Monarchs (29-5). The victory, however unexpected it might have been, was explained with cool confidence by King’s players.

“We didn’t come here thinking they had won all these state titles,” Rosborough said. “We looked at them as another team in our way of winning a championship ring.”

A 16-3 run in the last four minutes of the third quarter sent King on its way to Sacramento for the state Division II championship game against Mountain View St. Francis (25-8) on Saturday at Arco Arena.

Lea missed four layups in the first few minutes of the third quarter, but recovered to score eight points during the decisive spurt, which gave King a 44-40 lead.

Lea scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, making nine of 10 free throws to prevent Mater Dei from mounting a comeback.

“I knew my game was good enough that I’d be able to step up later in the third and fourth quarter,” said Lea, who set a Division II regional final record by making 14 free throws. He had 19 attempts.

Mater Dei had won 22 consecutive games and was looking for a second consecutive state title after winning the Division I championship last season.

But the Monarchs were undone by 21 turnovers.

“For us to lose this game, we’d have to have several things go wrong,” said Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight.

“We had quite a few things go wrong tonight.”

Mike Strawberry had 18 points and Wesley Washington scored 13 for Mater Dei.