ANGELUS LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Mater Dei Has an Ordinary Night, Still Wins by 15

If Mater Dei High School’s basketball team proved nothing else Wednesday night, the Monarchs showed that even when they play so-so they’re still unbeatable in the Angelus League.

Why should this season be any different? Mater Dei struggled at times, but wound up beating host Santa Margarita, 79-64, to win its ninth league championship in 10 seasons.

Mater Dei, top-ranked in the Southern Section Division I and in Orange County, and No. 18 in USA Today’s national poll, is 25-1, 9-0 in league play. The Monarchs’ only loss this season came against Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy, 69-50, in the championship of the Above the Rim tournament Dec. 31 in San Diego.

Santa Margarita is 17-7, 4-5 and in fourth place.

Unlike Mater Dei’s 87-69 victory over Santa Margarita last month at UC Irvine’s Bren Center, Wednesday’s game lacked the overwhelming sense of Monarch superiority.

Many times, Mater Dei was simply dreadful.

Credit for that goes to a stubborn Santa Margarita team, and perhaps the rain, which kept many Mater Dei fans from making the long drive to Rancho Santa Margarita.

“All their fans were here,” Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight said. “Ours were all out skiing, I guess.”

For a while late in the game, Mater Dei was in serious trouble.

“Balls were slipping through hands, and we were missing chippies,” McKnight said.

And Santa Margarita trailed, 60-58, after two free throws by center Kevin Lewis with 5:34 left in the game.

But then the roof caved in on the Eagles. Leading scorer Dan Bathey, averaging 21.3 points, fouled out 10 seconds later, having scored only nine points. Then, Coach Roger Holmes received a technical foul for arguing a palming call with 4:15 left.

Miles Simon made the free throws, David Drakeford added two more free throws a moment later and Marmet Williams threw in a layup for a 70-58 Mater Dei lead with 3:30 left. By then it was more than enough and the lead grew to 17 in the waning moments.

Williams had 19 points, Terence Wilborn 18, Reggie Geary 15 and Simon 11 for Mater Dei.

Mike Carpenter led Santa Margarita with 18 points and Bobby Nolan had 10 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

In another league game:

Servite 47, Bishop Amat 37--Adam Anderson and Matt Kenney led host Servite with 12 points each. Servite’s Ryan Smith added 11 points and held Bishop Amat’s Jelani Gardner to 11. Servite is 12-11, 5-4; Bishop Amat is 12-11, 6-3.