Undefeated Mater Dei boys rout Gorman for Tarkanian crown

Stanley Johnson had quite a weekend in Las Vegas.

The 6-foot-7-inch junior forward from Mater Dei (Calif.) met renowned UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, won the Most Valuable Player award at the tournament named after Tarkanian and scored 23 points Saturday to power his team to a 76-60 victory over host Bishop Gorman in the Platinum Division championship game of the Tarkanian Classic.

"Not a bad weekend," said Johnson, who is undecided about his plans for college. "We came into this tournament determined to win it. It's the only national tournament we are playing in this year, so we wanted to come out strong."

The Monarchs (10-0), ranked No. 10 in the nation by USA Today, made a statement early against the Gaels. Mater Dei exploded out of the gate behind two 3-pointers by Mario Soto, while Gorman missed its first seven shots, and the Monarchs stormed to a 14-0 advantage.

With Gorman (11-1) trailing 27-12, Trey Kennedy hit a driving basket and a 3-pointer, and Rashad Muhammad scored in the paint to spark an 11-2 run to trim the Monarchs' lead to 29-23 with 55 seconds left in the half.

Mater Dei answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to push its lead to 12 at halftime.

Brown added 22 points for Mater Dei. Kennedy had 16 points and Muhammad 10 for Gorman.