Skip to content
Author

TORRANCE – Disruption was the name of the game Thursday night.

The No. 8 Santa Margarita girls basketball team tried to limit standout West Torrance sophomore forward Jasmine Jones with a zone defense and the Warriors blanketed the Eagles with an aggressive full-court pressure defense, focusing on point guard Tori Anderson.

West Torrance’s strategy proved most effective, but not by much in a 43-37 nonleague victory.

The game was a battle of CIF-SS champions from last season. Santa Margarita won in Division 3A and West Torrance was victorious in the Division 2A bracket.

The Eagles (8-2) were weighed down by 25 turnovers, most attributed to the West Torrance defensive pressure, and Jones finished with a game-high 23 points and 16 rebounds.

A disparity in rebounds and the Santa Margarita turnovers also enabled the Warriors (6-3) to take 19 more shots than the Eagles. Still, Santa Margarita stayed close by holding West Torrance to just more than 27 percent shooting from the floor.

“We got frantic a little bit and they caused some chaos, which hurt us,” Santa Margarita coach Craig DeBusk said. “There are some glaring things that we have to work on, but I’m also proud of some things that we did in the game and our defense. We just need a little more experience and to stay under control when the pressure gets to us.”

Anderson finished with a team-high 15 points and fellow sophomore guard Morgan McMullen added 12 – all on 3-point shots – and the Eagles led, 32-31, early in the fourth quarter. But Jones nailed 3-pointer from the right corner with a 1:29 left to extend the Warriors’ lead, 40-34.

“That little corner shot was kinda a dagger,” DeBusk said.

Along with their defense, 3-point shooting, especially from McMullen, also kept the Eagles in the game throughout. McMullen hit 4 of 5 attempts from 3-point range, Anderson made 2 of 3 and another sophomore, Isabella Maramica, added another trey.

Santa Margarita hit 4 of 5 attempts beyond the arc in the first half to take a 20-19 lead into the halftime break.

“We can really shoot the ball, but we’ve got to stay within our offense,” DeBusk said. “We started breaking from it and that’s just (inexperience). That’s going to come. That’s why we want to play someone like this at their place early in the year.”