Santa Margarita Outworks Rosary

When Santa Margarita took the floor at home Thursday against ninth-ranked Rosary, the game plan was pretty clear as far as the Royals were concerned.

“The scouting report was Venessa Ferragamo and Colleen O’Leary,” Rosary Coach Richard Yoon said, “but they all came out and played hard.”

In fact, Santa Margarita beat the county’s hardest-working team at its own game, sparked by the play of Shannon Simon, to defeat Rosary, 61-52.

With only two teams in the four-team Serra League receiving automatic qualifying berths for the playoffs, the victory was huge. Santa Margarita, ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section Division II-A poll, is 14-6, 2-1 in league behind first-place Mater Dei.

Rosary, ranked third in Division III-AA, fell into a very unenviable third place.

The Royals can blame Simon.

Averaging only 6.1 per game, Simon made her first five shots and scored 12 of Santa Margarita’s first 19 points.

“By Shannon doing what she did, she made the girls that usually step up play even harder,” Eagle Coach Rich Schaaf said. “I think some of the other girls came out a little tentative.”

The Eagles went from tentative, and down 18-16 after one quarter, to aggressive and commanding a 32-23 halftime lead, thanks to a 13-2 second-quarter run.

Ferragamo (14 rebounds, six assists) and O’Leary (seven assists), eventually got their points, each scoring 18. And the whole Eagle squad was waiting for Maggie Barnett in the fourth quarter.

Suffering from stomach flu and playing like it for most of the game, Barnett did exactly what Schaaf explained to his team at halftime--Barnett would take over the game in the fourth quarter.

Trailing 49-35, Barnett scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter, and Rosary, with Jennie Asensio’s put-back, pulled to 50-44. By then, Santa Margarita had gone to a box-and-one on Barnett with Simon dogging the Rosary guard. O’Leary’s three-pointer sparked a run that extended the Eagles’ lead to 13 points, 57-44, with 2:43 remaining, and that was too much for a Royal comeback.

“In the final minutes, we picked it up, but that’s too late,” Yoon said. “They outhustled us--every loose ball was theirs.”

Barnett finished with 18 points, and Jenise Karcher had 19 points and four steals for Rosary.

In the Empire League:

Century 65, Katella 36--Elizabeth Mendoza scored 20 points and Charlenda Van Buren scored 18 and had 12 rebounds for visiting Century (17-4, 5-0).

El Dorado 44, Cypress 41--Smadar Bezalel scored 14 points to lead host El Dorado (13-7, 4-1).

Kennedy 50, Loara 37--Jessalynn Calumpong had a career-high 21 points for Kennedy (12-7, 2-3).

In the Olympic League:

Calvary Chapel 63, Orange Lutheran 51--Shayna Fabre scored 17 for Calvary Chapel (12-6, 4-1).

In the Orange League:

Anaheim 61, Western 48--Yuri Alvarado scored 19 for Anaheim (1-3), and China Brown scored 17 for host Western (9-9, 2-2).

Valencia 52, Savanna 37--Michelle Pietka scored 23 points and Monika Jackley had 19 for Valencia (17-2, 3-1). Reanita Starr scored 21 points for Savanna.

In the Pacific Coast League:

Estancia 66, University 43--Lauren Cassity scored 22 points for host Estancia (11-9, 2-2).

In the South Coast League:

Capistrano Valley 71, Trabuco Hills 36--Nicki Howard had 21 points and six steals and Hallie Steube scored 18 for the Cougars (14-6, 3-2).

No. 8 El Toro 76, Dana Hills 31--Giuliana Mendiola scored 41 points for El Toro (13-5, 4-1).

No. 2 San Clemente 72, Mission Viejo 43--Whitney Jones scored a season-high 30 points for San Clemente (18-2, 5-0).

In the Sunset League:

No. 5 Edison 54, Huntington Beach 39--Michelle Zylstra had 19 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots for Edison (14-7, 5-0).

No. 6 Esperanza 80, Fountain Valley 39--Kristin Peters scored 14 points to lead host Esperanza (14-5, 4-1).

Marina 50, Los Alamitos 46 (OT)--Stephanie Duda (nine points, 12 rebounds) tied the score in regulation with a free throw in the final seconds for the Griffins, but Miranda Emde’s sixth three-point basket clinched the win for Marina (15-6, 3-2). Emde scored 24. Lindsay Geoffroy led Los Alamitos (8-13, 0-5) with 17 points.