Laguna Hills Upsets Santa Margarita

The fire alarms near the Santa Margarita bench wailed for much of the first and third quarters, and the Eagles were without starting point guard Travis Smith. But those problems were minor compared to the ones Laguna Hills caused.

The unranked Hawks, employing a varied and tenacious defensive approach, upset No. 6 Santa Margarita, 47-37, Tuesday at Chapman University in the second round of the Orange Holiday boys’ basketball tournament.

Laguna Hills (8-5) will play Skyline (Wash.) at 8:30 tonight in the semifinals.

“This is huge,” said Laguna Hills guard Chris Lee, who had a game-high 18 points, including three three-pointers. “I wanted to beat them real bad.”

That attitude showed on defense. Laguna Hills effectively mixed a man-to-man, a 2-3 zone and a half-court trap throughout the game, frustrating the Eagles, who sorely missed their floor general, Smith, who was ejected from a game Monday night and suspended for Tuesday’s game.

Santa Margarita missed its first nine field-goal attempts and was 11 of 42 from the field for the game, including 4 of 17 on three-point attempts. The Hawks held the Eagles scoreless for 5:25 to start the game and for a six-minute stretch during the third quarter.

“We played decent defense,” said Dave Brown, who hasn’t been to the Orange Holiday semifinals since taking over as coach at Laguna Hills 11 years ago. “We’re improving and this is the time of year you want to be improving. Any time a South County team beats Santa Margarita it’s a big win.”

Despite the horrid shooting performance, Santa Margarita managed to stay in the game. Back-to-back three-pointers by Brandon Rohe pulled the Eagles to within 41-32 with 3:32 to play and a basket by Ryan Stacey pulled them to within 41-34 with 2:10 to go.

But the Laguna Hills defense stiffened and gave up only one field goal the rest of the way.