SANTA ANA – Standing underneath her own basket in the waning moments of the game, Santa Margarita’s Zaire Williams glanced up at the scoreboard knowing she could finally let her guard down.
The Eagles had overcome a double-digit, third-quarter deficit and was a buzzer sound away from celebrating its first CIF-SS championship since 2010.
When the clock finally hit zeros, Williams was mobbed by her teammates and the celebration was on.
Behind Williams’ game-high 18 points and seven steals, the Eagles were able to defeat Inglewood, 53-41, in the CIF-SS Division 3A championship game at Godinez High on Friday night.
“This is amazing,” she explained. “I’m really proud of my teammates for being so young and helping me win this my senior year. For them to be so young and have that focus and determination — I really just owe it to them.”
Williams was the lone senior on Santa Margarita’s roster. While she was not the squad’s leading scorer over the course of the season, she capped off her year by dropping 24 points in the semifinals and following that up with an 18-point performance in the championship. Those proved to be her two highest-scoring games of the season.
“She led the group at the very end and turned it on,” said Eagles coach Matt Houser. “We rode her shoulders again, and that’s what got us here. It was the young group following the leader.”
Williams’ night did not start off the way she wanted it to. The Eagles point guard scored two points in the first half as she only converted one of her first six shots.
Santa Margarita (18-13) trailed the Sentinels, 25-18, at the intermission.
“I just realized I wasn’t playing my game, I was too hyper, not focusing,” Williams explained. “I told myself to just settle down, relax, focus and just let the game come to me.”
The Sentinels (14-18) extended their lead to 11 points midway through the third quarter, before Santa Margarita was able to go on its game-changing run.
Guards Catie Woodward and Tori Anderson nailed jumpers on back-to-back possessions, and Williams turned a steal into a breakaway layup. With two minutes remaining in the third, the Eagles were down by four points.
“We have to be able to adapt to any situation,” Houser said.
“You have to play like water: You have to adapt to any situation.”
The Eagles allowed just 16 points in the second half. They outscored Inglewood, 20-6, in the fourth quarter.
Anderson, a freshman, was Santa Margarita’s second-leading scorer with 13 points.
“They’re going to be back here again,” Houser said of his players. “Sooner or later, this group is going to be back here again.”
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
