SANTA ANA – Even in the seasons when Santa Margarita’s boys basketball team won CIF championship, the Eagles never beat Mater Dei on its home court.
Until Wednesday.
Santa Margarita rallied to beat the Monarchs 74-73 in a Trinity League game at Mater Dei High.
The Eagles had won before in Mater Dei’s Meruelo Athletic Center, with several wins against opponents in the Nike Extravaganza event at the venue. But they had not beaten the Monarchs in the building or back when Mater Dei played home games at UC Irvine’s Bren Center or anywhere else.
Mater Dei and Santa Margarita first played in the same league in 1999 in the Serra League and stayed together when the Trinity League was formed in 2006.
Senior forward Drew Anderson said the Eagles were aware that they had not beaten Mater Dei on a Mater Dei home court.
“My econ teacher told me about it today,” said Anderson, an Oregon State signee who scored a team-high 22 points.
The Eagles, who have won six CIF Southern Section boys basketball championships, had to manufacture a heck of a comeback to make history happen.
Mater Dei had a 70-55 lead early in the fourth quarter. Santa Margarita coach Justin Bell figured the Eagles still had a good chance.
“We had shots that normally go in for us, not go in,” Bell said of his team’s play in the first three quarters. “I thought if we put together some defensive stops and got some rebounds … “
Santa Margarita’s win and St. John Bosco’s loss at Orange Lutheran 73-68 on Wednesday moved the Eagles into a first-place tie with St. John Bosco in the Trinity League.
Santa Margarita (22-3 overall) and St. John Bosco are both 3-1 in the six-team Trinity League.
Mater Dei (16-11 overall) is in a three-way tie with with JSerra and Orange Lutheran for third place. All three teams are 2-2 in league.
The shot that really ignited the Eagles’ comeback was Rodney Westmoreland’s 3-point basket with 3:52 to go that made it 70-63. His teammate Brayden Kyman followed with a 3 and it was 70-66.
Westmoreland’s steal and resulting layup got the score to 70-68 with 2:41 remaining. Santa Margarita’s Kaiden Bailey drove to the basket, slipped and while falling managed to dish the basketball to Markee White for a layup that tied the score, 70-70.
Trey Price made a 3-pointer to put the Monarchs back on top, 73-70. Bailey drove again to the basket and softly banked in a left-handed layup to trim the Monarchs’ lead to 73-72.
At the other end, Bailey snuck up on Mater Dei a pass at the top the key then went the distance for a layup that returned the lead to Santa Margarita, 74-73, with 15 seconds left.
Luke Barnett, the Monarchs’ career leader in 3-point baskets, tried a deep 3-pointer that missed. Price came down with the rebound. Price kicked the ball back out to Barnett who fired up another 3 that missed as the final seconds ticked off.
Along with his 22 points, Anderson, who was 10 of 17 shooting from the floor, also had nine rebounds.
Kyman, a senior guard who signed with Washington State, scored 18 points on six 3-point baskets. Bailey, a Georgia Tech signee, scored 14 points. Eagles senior forward Markee White scored 10 points with 10 rebounds.
Zain Majeed, a 6-8 junior forward, scored 22 points for Mater Dei, including three 3-pointers. Monarchs junior guard Richie Ramirez scored 19 points and Barnett finished with 16 points.
Santa Margarita is No. 1 the Orange County Top 25 and No. 4 in the CIF Southern Section computer rankings.
Mater Dei is No. 5 in Orange County and No. 31 in the CIF-SS rankings.
On Friday, Mater Dei is home against JSerra and Santa Margarita is home against Orange Lutheran.
Trinity League teams play each other only once in league play. The six teams will then play in a league tournament that starts Monday and runs through Wednesday.
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