Round 2 delivers a punch in Trinity League rivalry
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The best rivalry in girls’ basketball this season? Well, you’d have to take a hard look at No. 8 Mater Dei and No. 9 Santa Margarita.
The teams met in the title game of the Ocean View tournament and Mater Dei, under first-year Coach Kevin Kiernan, opened an 18-2 lead before Santa Margarita pulled to within 36-35 with 2:52 left in the game when SM’s Lauren Oosdyke fouled out, opening the door for Mater Dei’s 50-43 victory.
Round 2 on Tuesday night, and Santa Margarita gained the upper hand by winning a Trinity League game, 44-42.
Oosdyke scored 13 and Melissa Zornig scored 17. Santa Margarita came back from seven points down in the third quarter. ‘It wasn’t a fantastic high school game, but it was a pretty good high school game,’ said Scott Bricker, Santa Margarita’s first-year coach. ‘Both of us were sloppy at times. You know how they are and how we are -- create havoc for our opponents.’
Gillian Gipe, who struggled throughout, hit a free-throw to give SM a 44-42 lead with 30 seconds remaining. Tough defense then ruled the day. The Eagles played man-to-man and survived a drive to the basket by Kaitlyn Soto, then when the loose ball went out of bounds with a half-second left, they subbed in 6-foot-2 Elise Lorenz and went to a zone. ‘She’s a space-eater,’ Bricker said. ‘It was team defense, really, but we clogged the middle and took the freshman, Alexys Vaioletama, out of the play. We played good defense and forced a tough shot by Kaitlyn Soto.’
Vaioletama scored 18, but she was the only Monarch with more than five points.
It may well have been the biggest victory of Bricker’s 2 1/2 month career, but he said he wasn’t thinking like that: ‘It’s a great win for our team, and it’s the next step. Anytime you beat your arch-rival, it’s great. And it’s great to do it on their floor and it’s great to do it when they’re No. 2 in the county.’
Santa Margarita (13-2, 2-0) and Mater Dei (16-2, 1-1) aren’t done. They are to play at Santa Margarita on Jan. 24 in the rubber match. Speaking of rubber matches and great rivalries, that’s a poster for the third Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier battle in 1976. This was before cable television, and someone in SoCal who wanted to see the fight from Hartford, Conn., had to go to a movie theater to watch a closed-circuit broadcast. Ah, the not-so-good old days ...
-- Martin Henderson
-- Image from www.allposters.com