Santa Barbara High’s Amber Melgoza figures to draw a lot of attention in the CIF State Regional Final on Saturday.
There are lots of similarities between CIF State Division 3 Regional finalists Santa Barbara High and Santa Margarita.
The two Southern Section girls basketball champions square off for a regional title and a berth in the State Finals on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Colony High in Ontario. Santa Barbara (29-5) is the CIF-SS 3AA champion while Santa Margarita (23-13) won the 3A title.
Presidio Sports will be providing in-game updates from the regional final at Colony High on Saturday night. UPDATES HERE
The similarities don’t end with section titles. Both teams rely heavily on underclassmen and have one senior in the lineup that provides leadership. For the Dons, it’s guard Desirea Coleman. At Santa Margarita, the floor leader is Zaire Williams.
“They’re kind of like us,” Santa Barbara coach Andrew Butcher said of the Eagles. “They have a senior point guard who is the leader and they got some real good young talent. Their strength is their guards. They’re extremely quick and score most of their points.”
The top scorers are underclassmen: sophomore Amber Melgoza leads Santa Barbara with a 22-point average while freshman Tori Anderson is the leader for a balanced Eagles attack with 15-point average.
The Dons and Eagles both use full-court pressure to make things happen.
Neither team won their league – Santa Barbara finished second to Ventura in the Channel League; Santa Margarita placed fourth in the tough Trinity League, which includes powerhouse programs Mater Dei and Orange Lutheran.
Both teams have wins over Lakeside and La Cañada in the postseason.
And, both programs are playing in their first regional final.
“At this point, all the teams are pretty even,” said Butcher.
Santa Margarita does have a height advantage with 6-3 center Taylor Donahue and 5-11 Sheldon Cornwell.
But every team Santa Barbara plays is taller. The Dons counterattack the size issue with toughness, savvy, good positioning on rebounds and fitness.
Santa Barbara will need other players to step up in the scoring column as Santa Margarita figures to concentrate on containing Melgoza. Williams is expected to get the assignment of guarding standout sophomore.
“She’s a real good athlete,” Butcher said of Williams. “It will be interesting. They might come out in a junk defense like La Cañada did or play straight man defense. It’s a cat-and-mouse game.”
