RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Ca. – The consensus of opinion going into the season was that the Trinity League Boys’ Basketball Derby was strictly a two-horse race.
The Santa Margarita High squad of Coach Justin Bell trampled that perception senseless Wednesday night.
Senior Aldo Ruiz-Ortiz’s sixth 3-pointer of the contest – with 2.8 seconds to go – gave the Eagles a 61-58 overtime win over visiting St. John Bosco in a league opener.
Ortiz’s final 3 reverberated not only among the six Trinity members but also in the entirety of Southern California prep hoops.
Coach Matt Dunn’s Braves came into Orange County 7-0 and No. 3 in the initial BurlisonOnBasketball “21 for 2021” SoCal ratings while the Eagles (6-0) were No. 21.
Mater Dei (8-0), fourth in the “21 for 2021”, open league play with a 62-53 decision at JSerra in San Juan Capistrano.
Trinity League play resumes Friday, with Mater Dei playing host to Orange Lutheran (which won at Servite Wednesday, 47-39), St. John Bosco home to Servite and Santa Margarita welcoming visiting JSerra.
The Eagles take on Mater Dei in Santa Ana on April 30 while the Braves get their first pop at the Monarchs, on the road, on May 5.
Wednesday night Bell’s team led nearly throughout, jumping to an 8-point advantage late in the first quarter while going up, 33-28, at intermission.
The Braves scored the first eight points of the third quarter (3s by 6-foot-5 senior Scotty Washington and 6-8 junior Jeremiah Nyarko, and a layup by Loyola Marymount-bound Lamaj Lewis) to briefly go up.
The Eagles, which got double-figure scoring from Ortiz (20 points) and forwards Luke Turner (17) and Jake Heberle (12), were in front by seven points in the fourth quarter then missed open jumpers near or behind the 3-point arc on four consecutive possessions that could have maintained or padded that advantage.
They were still in front by five with less than a minute to go but back-to-back turnovers set up Washington (who scored eight of his team-high 19 points in the fourth quarter) for a 3 and score-tying layup by Lewis (15).
The Eagles couldn’t get a clean attempt at a potential winning shot in the closing seconds.
The Braves got a layup by Lewis and a short jumper by Nyarko (13 points and eight rebounds) before 3s by Ortiz and Jack McCloskey – sandwiched around two Washington free throws – tied the score with 1:32 to go.
Following the timeout immediately after Ortiz’s decisive 3 (set up by a pass from McCloskey), Lewis was able to launch – and miss – a 3 that would have put the game into a second, four-minute extra stanza.
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