Santa Margarita boys basketball outgunned by Harvard-Westlake in Open Division

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – Harvard-Westlake’s energy was high and its outside shooting accurate.

Santa Margarita was lacking in both categories Tuesday.

Harvard-Westlake beat the Eagles, 83-62, in a CIF Southern Section Open Division boys basketball playoff game.

The Eagles (27-4) will play at top-seeded Sierra Canyon (29-1) in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Harvard-Westlake (24-5) plays at home against Crespi (20-12) on Friday.

Senior guard Kaiden Bailey, a Georgia Tech signee, led Santa Margarita with 19 points despite going scoreless in the first quarter. Oregon State-signed senior forward Drew Anderson scored 18 points with eight rebounds for the Eagles.

The Wolverines got high-scoring production from three players. Senior guard Joe Sterling, who signed with Texas, scored 22 points, including a 30-foot, 3-point basket to beat the buzzer at the end of the third quarter. Wolverines junior guard Pierce Thompson scored 22 points and senior guard Amir Jones, who is going to Georgia State, scored 21 points including five 3-pointers.

The Wolverines were 31 for 59 on all shots and 14 for 26 on 3-point attempts. Santa Margarita was 22 for 57 from the floor and 8 for 20 on 3-point tries.

The Wolverines set a frenetic pace early. They busted out to a 9-2 lead and were ahead 24-17 at the end of the first quarter.

Bailey scored eight points in the second quarter as the Eagles outscored Harvard-Westlake 20-13 in the quarter to force a 37-37 tie at halftime.

Harvard-Westlake was back in control in the third quarter. The Wolverines made 10 of their 14 shots in the quarter, including going 4 for 6 on 3-point shots, to outscore the Eagles 27-16 and take a 64-53 lead into the fourth quarter. Santa Margarita was 5 for 12 in the third quarter.

The Wolverines pulled away quickly in the fourth quarter. Dominique Bentho, a wide-body 6-9 senior who signed with UC Irvine, converted a 3-point play 90 seconds into the quarter to make it 69-53.

Harvard-Westlake outscored Santa Margarita 19-9 in the fourth quarter.

Bentho had 10 rebounds, including a few on the offensive side, and Jones and Sterling had five rebounds each.

Santa Margarita coach Justin Bell was disappointed that his team failed to match the Wolverines’ intensity.

“They were good, they were on,” Bell said. “We didn’t play well tonight. We didn’t show a lot of toughness on the boards like we have been showing this year.”

Santa Margarita took an eight-game winning streak into Tuesday’s game, including an 81-71 win over Damien in an Open Division game last week and winning the Trinity League Tournament championship the previous week.

Harvard-Westlake finished third in the Mission League, a league also represented by Sierra Canyon, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Crespi in the Open Division.