FULLERTON – Santa Margarita’s boys basketball team will get another chance to beat St. John Bosco.
The Eagles defeated JSerra 84-26 on Tuesday in the semifinals of the Trinity League Tournament at Hope International University.
Santa Margarita (25-3) will play St. John Bosco (20-6) in the championship game Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Hope.
The Eagles lost to St. John Bosco 74-73 in double overtime in a very entertaining league game on Jan. 9 at Santa Margarita High.
“It’s so funny,” Santa Margarita coach Justin Bell said Tuesday. “That game seems so long ago.”
For Santa Margarita senior guard Kaiden Bailey that game is even more distant.
“It was painful for sure,” Bailey said. “But I’ve got a goldfish memory. As soon as the game was over I obviously watched the film and saw the things we could do better and I could do personally.”
JSerra (18-12) will play Mater Dei (17-13) in the third-place game Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Hope International University.
The third-place game could be an important one in terms of the CIF Southern Section playoffs. The top three teams in the six-team Trinity League are automatic qualifiers for the playoffs. The fourth-place team could only get into the playoffs as an at-large selection.
Santa Margarita got to the championship game with four players scoring in double figures Tuesday.
Senior forward Drew Anderson scored 21 points with seven rebounds. Bailey scored 20 points, including four 3-point baskets. Forward Brayden Kyman scored 14 points with five rebounds, and senior guard Rodney Westmoreland scored 15 points on five 3-pointers.
JSerra senior guard Jaden Bailes scored 21 points with three 3-pointers. Sophomore forward Ryan Doane scored 15 points for the Lions.
A Westmoreland 3-point basket at the final buzzer lifted Santa Margarita to a 70-67 win over JSerra on Jan. 16 at JSerra High.
The Eagles needed no such last-second heroics Tuesday. They were sharp from the opening tip and maintained that urgency for all 32 minutes. Santa Margarita led 22-9 at the end of the first quarter, in which Bailey scored eight points, and were up 41-29 at halftime.
Anderson scored nine points in the third quarter and eight in the fourth quarter. Santa Margarita outscored JSerra 43-27 in the second half.
Bell remembers his postgame feeling but not the details of last month’s double-overtime loss to the Braves.
“I remember the emotions,” Bell said. “But I don’t remember the nuances. I’m sure they’ve improved.”
Bell laughed as he added: “And they’ve still got Christian Collins. So we’d better be ready.”
Collins, a 6-8 senior with offers from many top college programs, scored 20 points and had 13 rebounds in the Jan. 9 game. Bailey scored 29 points, with 16 of those points coming from the fourth quarter through the second overtime.
Bailey is looking forward to the rematch: “I’m excited for tomorrow.”
There could be a third Santa Margarita-St. John Bosco game coming soon. In the CIF Southern Section computer rankings, St. John Bosco is ranked third among the section’s 516 boys basketball teams, and Santa Margarita is No. 4. So it’s probable that they could meet again in the CIF-SS Open Division playoffs.
Also in the Trinity League tournament:
St. John Bosco 72, Mater Dei 66: Christian Collins scored 26 points with 10 rebounds for the Braves (20-6) in the other tournament semifinal.
Mater Dei was without high-scoring senior guard Luke Barnett, a Kansas signee who was unavailable for the game because of illness.
The Monarchs would have been helped by Barnett, who is averaging 19 points a game and is the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers.
Mater Dei trailed from the early going. St. John Bosco took an 8-0 lead and built on that for a 33-18 advantage at halftime.
The Monarchs made a second-half surge that pulled them within five points 55-50, early in the fourth quarter. That was as close as they would get.
Junior guard Richie Ramirez led Mater Dei with 22 points. Monarchs forward Zain Majeed scored 19 points and junior guard Trey Price added 14.
St. John Bosco senior guard Max Ellis scored 21 points including three 3-pointers.
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