FULLERTON – It remains top dog for the time being, but the days of Mater Dei’s girls basketball team stampeding through league play look to be a thing of the past.
After trailing No. 5 Rosary for much of the first three quarters of play, the top-ranked Monarchs clamped down defensively late and held the Royals to two field goals over final 11-plus minutes of regulation and won its Trinity League opener, 48-33, Thursday night in front of a packed gym at Rosary High.
The Monarchs (10-5, 1-0) used a 10-0 run over the final 1:40 of the third quarter and first 90 seconds of the fourth to turn a one-point deficit into a nine-point lead they were able to sustain until the final buzzer.
Senior guard Jayda Adams led all scorers with 15 points, while junior center Emma Torbert finished with 11 point and 10 rebounds as Mater Dei snapped Rosary’s 12-game win streak.
“All the league games are going to be tough,” Mater Dei coach Kevin Kiernan said. “We’ve kind of come back to the pack (in legaue) and everybody else has improved. Nothing is easy for us. We’re an inconsistent shooting team, but we played hard. We played hard, and I think we wore them out a little bit late. I don’t think that score is indicative how close this game was.”
The Royals’ active zone defense forced Mater Dei to become a jump-shooting team, which it has tried to avoid this season. The Monarchs shot just 3 of 13 from beyond the arc in the opening half, allowing Rosary to take a 19-17 edge into intermission.
“I thought we held our own for a good three quarters,” Royals coach Richard Yoon said. “There were too many little things I thought we could’ve done better at the end of the game, and obviously you’ve got to take care of the ball when it counts.”
Guards Alli Iannone (10 points) and Kate Goostrey (9 points) were impressive throughout for Rosary (14-2, 1-1), but there were times the Royals struggled handling the ball against the Monarchs’ extended defensive pressure. Rosary turned the ball over 10 times in the second half, and shot 2 of 14 from the field in the fourth quarter.
Also in the Trinity League:
Santa Margarita 43, JSerra 31: The Eagles snapped a two-game losing skid behind Tori Anderson’s 16-point performance on the road against a tough Lions team. Santa Margarita outscored JSerra, 14-2, in the second quarter and maintained a lead throughout the second half.
In nonleague:
Sierra Canyon 68, No. 8 Orangewood Academy 53: Four different Trailblazers put up double figures in the victory, led by Ryann Payne’s 18 and Alexis Grigsby’s 17. Spartans senior forward Estefania Giner scored 16 points against the second-ranked team in CIF’s latest Division 1AA poll.
In the Academy League:
Oxford Academy 41, Sage Hill 40: Sophomore center Austyn Masuno scored a game-high 27 points and the Patriots withstood a late Lightning charge to secure a critical road victory. Heather Park led Sage Hill with 21 points.
In the Sunset League:
No. 7 Los Alamitos 71, Marina 32: The Griffins improved to a perfect 3-0 in league as Olivia Clarke scored 20 points and Cailyn Crocker added 19 in a route of the Vikings.
In the Sea View League:
Dana Hills 46, Capistrano Valley 28: Behind a smothering defensive effort, the Dolphins held the Cougars to just five points in the first half of play. Four different Dana Hills players accounted for at least nine points offensively, including Alex Williams (12) and Olivia Chambers (10).
Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com
