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High School Sports

BOYS’ STATE BASKETBALL

By BEN BOLCH

In other boys’ regional finals:

Santa Ana Mater Dei 80, Fresno Clovis West 62--The top-seeded Monarchs, led by guard Ricky Porter, outscored the Eagles, 27-10, in the fourth quarter en route to their first Division I regional title since 1999.

Porter scored 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter as Mater Dei (32-2) steadily built on the 53-52 lead it held at the end of the third quarter. Center Jamal Sampson added 20 points, 15 rebounds and eight blocked shots for the Monarchs, who shot 76.2% in the second half.

Mater Dei, which avenged a loss to the Eagles in last season’s regional final, will try to win its fourth state title, and first since 1995, when it faces Modesto Christian in the state championship game.

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Chris Hernandez scored 19 points and Nick Debban had 18 for Clovis West (31-3), which made only one of 15 three-point attempts in the second half.

High School Sports
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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