Santa Margarita Boxes Up Mater Dei in Fourth Quarter

After three quarters, host Santa Margarita finally found the key to lock up Mater Dei’s Maile Shimoda, which helped the Eagles rally to a 44-39 Serra League victory Tuesday night.

Shimoda had 23 points and six three-pointers in propelling the injury-plagued Monarchs to a 34-24 lead going into the fourth quarter. But the No. 9 Eagles (16-7, 3-1) used a box-and-one defense anchored by guard Shannon Simon to hold Shimoda scoreless and the seventh-ranked Monarchs to only three fourth-quarter points.

Colleen O’Leary drilled a three-pointer with 2:54 left after a sideline-to-sideline pass from Venessa Ferragamo (11 points, 12 rebounds) to give the Eagles a 38-36 lead.

Kristin Hayman answered with a three-pointer--the Monarchs’ only field goal of the quarter--to put her team back ahead by one. But a free throw by Ferragamo and another three-pointer by O’Leary with 54 seconds left put away the game away.

“[Coach Richard Schaaf] was getting on me at halftime because I came out and didn’t play my best,” said O’Leary, who scored 10 of her 13 points in the second half and had several key assists. “I went out and got the ball to the people who needed it.”

The Monarchs (18-6, 4-1) were without two of their best players, recently injured Kyra Melville and Lindsay Pavlik.