St. John Bosco’s Joshua Adoh, left, and Mater Dei’s Michael Wang battle for a rebound during a Trinity League game at Mater Dei in Santa Ana on Friday, January 26, 2018. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/Contributing Photographer)

Mater Dei’s Michael Wang slams a dunk past St. John Bosco defenders during a Trinity League game at Mater Dei in Santa Ana on Friday, January 26, 2018. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/Contributing Photographer)

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Mater Dei’s Michael Wang shoots over the Santa Margarita defense during a Trinity League boys basketball game at Santa Margarita in Rancho Santa Margarita on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018. Mater Dei defeated Santa Margarita 67-49. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Mater Dei’s Michael Wang drives past Santa Margarita’s Jordan Isaiah Guest during a Trinity League boys basketball game at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita on Wednesday, January 18, 2017. (Photo by Matt Masin, Orange County Register, SCNG)

Mater Dei’s Michael Wang, right, shoots over Crespi’s Kyle Owens during a first round game of CIF-SS Open Division playoffs at Mater Dei in Santa Ana on Friday, February 16, 2018. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/Contributing Photographer)



Mater Dei’s Michael Wang, right, tries to drive past Crespi’s Kyle Owens during a first round game of CIF-SS Open Division playoffs at Mater Dei in Santa Ana on Friday, February 16, 2018. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/Contributing Photographer)

Crespi’s Brandon Williams, left, goes up for a basket under pressure as Mater Dei’s Michael Wang defends during a first round game of CIF-SS Open Division playoffs at Mater Dei in Santa Ana on Friday, February 16, 2018. (Photo by Kyusung Gong/Contributing Photographer)

Santa Margarita’s Shengzhe Li grabs a rebound from Mater Dei’s Michael Wang during the Monarchs’ 68-55 victory over the Eagles in a Trinity League boys basketball game at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018. (Photo by Kevin SullivanOrange County Register/SCNG)

SANTA ANA – When Michael Wang arrived at Mater Dei four years ago, he knew little about the school and its illustrious boys basketball program.

Wang had about the same amount of knowledge about California and the United States.

Now a senior, Wang (pronounced “Wong”) knows much more about his school, his new home state and new home country. And the Southern California high school basketball world knows much more about Wang, who moved from China to the U.S. when he was 14.

Wang, a 6-foot-10, 215-pound senior forward, is the leading rebounder and second-leading scorer a Mater Dei team that last week won its 23rd CIF-Southern Section championship and plays Friday in the opening round of the CIF State tournament against Fairfax of Los Angeles in an Open Division game of the CIF Southern California Regionals.

Wang has been a major contributor to this latest championship season at Mater Dei. He is scoring 14.1 points a game, second on the team behind senior point guard Spencer Freedman’s average of 16.6 points, and his 6.4 rebounds a game is slightly higher than senior forward Harrison Butler’s average of 6.3 boards.

Some of Wang’s better performances came during the CIF-SS Open Division playoffs – 23 points and 10 rebounds in a semifinals win over Etiwanda and 14 points in the finals win over Sierra Canyon.

Wang’s hometown is Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, which is 250 miles southeast of Beijing. Taiyan is a history-rich and huge city, with a population of more than 4 million.

He was introduced to basketball in elementary school.

“I started watching the NBA when I was a little kid,” said Wang, 17, after practice Wednesday at Mater Dei. “I fell in love with basketball.”

He went from being a good player to an exceptional player by the time he was 13. With his middle-school teammates Wang attended a basketball camp in New York state.

At that point, Wang got serious about his basketball future. With the approval of his parents, he moved to Southern California to live with a friend of his mother in Walnut. Wang started thinking about where he should play high school basketball.

“I had no clue about the high schools here or where they were,” Wang said. “So I asked around and pretty much every single person I asked said, ‘Oh, Mater Dei is really good.’

“I came here to watch about four games and decided this is the place for me.”

His freshman season in 2014-15 was one of challenging adjustments. The food, the language … especially the language.

“My English was pretty bad,” he said. “I could barely talk to people. It was super hard for me to understand people.”

Wang learned much of his English from watching TV and movies. You’d never know it, though, because Wang is polite and soft spoken.

Wang was very motivated to get his English down.

“When you play basketball you have to talk a lot to your teammates,” Wang said. “And there’s always going to be one guy on every team who’s going to make fun of your accent.”

Wang made Mater Dei’s varsity team as a gangly 6-5 freshman and was a key reserve. He was a good shooter and dribbler for his age and height, but other aspects of his game were lacking.

“Defensively, I was terrible as a freshman,” said Wang, smiling. “I’m still not great at it, but I’m better.”

Wang no longer gets shoved aside around the basket on rebounds and he can post up sturdily on offense. When 7-foot-3 nationally-ranked prospect Bol Bol withdrew from Mater Dei in November, Wang successfully became more of an inside presence.

Over the past four seasons he has also improved his long-distance accuracy and has a quicker release to his shoot.

“He’s so versatile,” said Freedman. “A 6-10 guy who can shoot, dribble and pass.”

Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight wants his top players to be at their best in the spotlight. Wang has not disappointed him.

“In this playoff run he’s been fabulous,” McKnight said. “He was big-time in Oregon (in a national-level tournament in Portland) when Spencer was sick. That was his coming-out party in Oregon.”

Wang has lived with Freedman’s family in Irvine since his sophomore year.

“He’s very much part of the family,” Freedman said. “Totally casual, very talkative.”

Wang will continue his education next fall and play basketball at Penn where he has been accepted to the school’s prestigious Wharton School of Business. He has a 3.5 GPA.

His career goal is to own his own business – “I don’t want to work for someone else,” he said – and hopes to spend equal time in China and the U.S.

He last was in China two years ago.

“I miss it a lot,” Wang admitted. “I miss my friends the most.”

Four years ago, Wang wondered if he would have any meaningful friendships here. The bonds he has with Freedman and his other Mater Dei teammates took care of that.

“Everyone is friends with each other on the team this year,” Wang said. “I’ve never been part of something like this.”