SOUTHERN SECTION BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : Servite Takes a Walk on the Winning Side

Servite High School’s basketball team trotted out its playoff-tested, tried-and-true formula for winning once again Tuesday night.

Santa Margarita fell victim to Servite’s ball-control offense and tight defense, 59-49, in a Southern Section Division III-A semifinal game at Christ College Irvine.

It isn’t thrilling to watch, but it works.

A standing-room-only crowd of 2,500 watched Servite advance to the championship game against Morningside, a 65-54 winner over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Saturday at the Sports Arena.

Servite, which lost the section championship game last season but came back to win the State Division III title, is 22-6. Santa Margarita ends its season 17-10.

It was the third time this season Angelus League rivals Servite and Santa Margarita had played. And the third time Servite controlled the game’s tempo. And the third time Servite won.

Servite started slowly and kept the game moving at crawling speed. An example of Servite’s game plan came early.

Matt Kenney, a junior guard, rebounded a missed shot by a Santa Margarita player near the free-throw line. Instead of turning to start a fast break, Kenney held the ball until the others trotted to the other end, then flipped the ball to point guard Eddie Rubio, who walked the ball up court.

Santa Margarita, which came prepared to walk but would have rather run, stuck close, trailing, 29-24, at halftime.

Then Roger Holmes, Santa Margarita coach, decided it was time to pick up the pace with a half-court trapping defense.

It didn’t work.

“We were telling our guys to spread out wide,” Servite Coach Richard Smith said. “We took what was there.”

Mostly, it was layups and short jump shots.

Spread thin, Santa Margarita struggled to catch Servite. On offense, Santa Margarita went cold and had trouble hanging on to the ball.

Servite stole everything that wasn’t nailed down in the third quarter.

“On our perimeter defense we tried to make it tough for them to pass inside,” Smith said.

It worked well, as did everything else Servite did in the third quarter. The Friars outscored Santa Margarita, 15-5, breaking the game open for good.

“We had an excellent third quarter and then it was a matter of hanging on,” Smith said.

Santa Margarita went scoreless for the first 5 minutes 21 seconds of the third quarter, then found itself down, 44-29, by the end of the third period.

Behind David Perry’s free-lancing in the fourth quarter, Santa Margarita managed to cut into Servite’s lead, but the Eagles never got closer than 10 points.

Perry had 12 points, all in the fourth quarter. Dan Bathey had 16 points, but the Eagles’ production fell off after that.

Adam Anderson and Kenney each had 18 points.

And once again, Santa Margarita couldn’t overcome Servite’s plodding offense and the strong defense.

“The first two times we played them, they basically did the same things,” Holmes said. “The games were identical--except (tonight) we couldn’t put the ball in the basket.”