Tomorrow's matchup up featuring Nationally-ranked Mater Dei High School and the Loyola Cubs has to be the most exciting matchup of the 2012 CIF State Hoops Tournament up to this point. After the Monarchs' victory over Loyola in the CIF Southern Section Semis, super sophomore Stanley Johnson told College Level Athletes, "We hadn't played them this year, and it's the first team in California that's really been fast, and been able to run with us... and use their athletic ability just as good as us."

Now that Mater Dei and Loyola are meeting for the second time in less than two weeks, be assured that Gary McKnight will have his team prepared for it all. The Loyola Cubs are the real deal. "They battle, they get after it. Their guards are very good," said McKnight after his team staged a comeback from 10-points down in the second half to beat the Cubs and their dynamic guard play.

Since their previous matchup, both Loyola and Mater Dei won their first two CIF Tournament games with ease. The Monarchs had a much easier route as the number one seed in the CIF Southern Region, while Loyola battled Crenshaw and Etiwanda, respectively, to earn their birth in the third round. Jackson-Cartwright has been consistent for Loyola over the past two games, and the sophomore point guard almost notched a triple-double against Crenshaw, going for 12 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists in the Cubs' 103-91 victory.

"Parker's a killer. He has a killer instinct. He's really aggressive and he has moves that you really can't stop... he makes tough shots all the time. There's really nothing you can do with it, but hope he misses sometimes," said Stanley Johnson of his fellow class of 2014 recruit. Loyola's sophomore Jackson-Cartwright was an important factor against Mater Dei in the CIF Section Semis, but it will be the play of the Cubs' interior players that will decide this one.

Mater Dei cleaned up the glass against Loyola in the last game (33-18), and you can look for the rebounding margin to determine the final score in this one, in our opinion. That is, unless Loyola's guards explode from the perimeter to make things interesting. The Cubs were up by 10-points in the second half of last game, so you can count on Loyola having a great deal of confidence heading into tomorrow's tip-off.