ANGELUS LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Mater Dei-Santa Margarita Opener Is All Monarchs

The first varsity basketball meeting between Mater Dei and Santa Margarita high schools was a blowout.

Mater Dei won, 76-61, Friday night before a overflow crowd of 2,500 at Santa Margarita, but it might have provided a glimpse of the future.

Some day in the not-too-distant future, Mater Dei-Santa Margarita will be boffo.

Orange County’s two largest Catholic high schools will pack the gym hours before tipoff. Coaches will bait referees, searching for any edge they can. Players will dive on the floor and crash into each other.

And the games will come down to last-gasp shots in the final, frantic seconds.

Some day, but not Friday. Call it a rivalry in the making.

For now, they’ll have to settle for big crowds and a modicum of intensity.

Oh, coaches sweated. Bodies flew. And there was a fair amount of woofing. This was an Angelus League game, after all.

But on this night, Mater Dei broke the game open early, never trailed and won easily. The Monarchs led by as many as 22 points in the third quarter.

They were quicker and had a better outside shooting touch, but most of all, they played a smoothering man-to-man defense.

Mater Dei, third-ranked in Orange County, improved to 12-4, 2-1 in the league. Santa Margarita, playing its first season in the league with its first senior class, fell to 10-6, 0-3.

J.J. Ballesteros, a senior guard, had 27 points, 18 in the first half, for Mater Dei. Jason Jeneski, a senior forward, added 13 points and Reggie Geary, a senior guard, scored nine.

For Santa Margarita, Dan Bathey, a junior forward, had 23 points, mostly on inside moves in the paint. Senior center Jeff Layne added 14.

Mater Dei was hot right from the start. Ballesteros made two three-point baskets on Mater Dei’s first two trips down court.

After Geary’s layup off a steal, Mater Dei led, 10-4. Santa Margarita, overmatched but never out-hustled, cut into the lead, if only briefly, getting as close as 17-13 with 1:45 left in the first quarter.

But by the end of the quarter, Mater Dei had made it 23-15.

From there, the Monarchs blew the game open with a mix of hot outside shooting and fast breaks.

With 4:19 left in the half, Mater Dei led by 16. By halftime, it was back to just 11.

But Mater Dei put the game away for good early in the third quarter. And by quarter’s end, the Monarchs led, 61-39, after closing with a 7-0 run.

Ballesteros fed Geary for a dunk and Janeski for a layup, then added a three-point basket just before the buzzer for good measure.

In another league game:

Bishop Amat 40, Servite 37--Servite had difficulty getting its offense going without starting point guard Eddie Rubio, who sat out with a deep thigh bruise. Adam Anderson scored nine points for Servite (12-5, 2-1).