Samohi Girls Hoops Falls in CIF Semifinals

To pull off their second consecutive upset over a national power, players on the girls basketball team knew that they had to start fast and play hard for all four quarters of Tuesday night's semifinal game.

The Vikings certainly played hard, but they failed to get off to the fast start , and their early deficit proved too much to overcome in a 57-37 defeat to Santa Ana Mater Dei at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Coming off a 57-56 quarterfinal upset of defending champion , the seventh-seeded Vikings (22-9) were confident they could avenge yet another regular season loss against a higher-ranked opponent. This time, though, things didn't go as scripted.

"We didn't come out ready to play," Samohi senior guard said. "In practice, our main goal was to never let a quarter go by with them getting a lead. We emphasized that if they went on a run, we had to respond right away."

That didn't happen, as Samohi fell behind by 14 points in the first quarter. However, the Vikings didn't advance this deep into the tournament by caving in under adversity, and they cut the deficit to single digits at halftime, 28-19.

"They are beatable, and going into halftime, we knew we could play with them," Faulk said. "The problem was that we played too undisciplined, and they had so many fresh bodies to throw out there. They are a very deep team, and by them going on that early run, we had to expend a lot of energy to catch up."

Back-to-back baskets to begin the third quarter pulled the Vikings to within five points, but that was as close as they would get. Third-seeded Mater Dei (28-1) answered with a 9-2 run and led by 10 points going into the fourth quarter.

Though Samohi kept the Monarchs well under their season scoring average of 73.3 points per game, it was unable to snap Mater Dei's winning streak (now at 20 games) or reverse a 70-54 loss back in January.

The Vikings, who won the Division 1A crown last winter, were after their second straight section title and winning the highest playoff division, against the best possible competition. It would have been a storybook ending for Coach , who is after the season.

"Honestly, as long as we're in the playoffs, I wouldn't have it any other way," Faulk said about moving up to Division 1AA. "It's one thing to win when you know you're better than the teams you're playing, but to have the opportunity to play the best teams in the state and the nation like we have this year—nothing can top that."

scored 12 points and Faulk added 11 for the Vikings, who can still look forward to the state tournament, which begin next week. 

Connecticut-bound Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scored 20 points and USC signee Alexys Vaioletama added 15 for Mater Dei, which will take on top-seeded Brea Olinda (29-0) in Saturday's championship game. 

"Our season's not over—we still have the state playoffs coming up," Faulk said. "But we'll definitely do something for Coach [Verdugo] at the end of the season. I'm not sure what yet, but we'll do something."