RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA — Villa Park’s girls basketball team continued its excellent start to the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs by cruising to a 58-45 win over Santa Margarita on Saturday in a second-round game at Santa Margarita High.
The Spartans won their first-round matchup against Palos Verdes by 21 points and will play St. Anthony or La Salle on the road in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
Villa Park (23-7) lost to Santa Margarita (18-11) on Dec. 6 in the Lady Spartans Winter Shootout at Villa Park High.
“I think we benefitted from losing to them earlier in the season,” Villa Park coach Brad Willis said. “We learned from it and I think you saw it in our performance tonight. The girls were laser focused. Similar to our first-round game, there was balance in our lineup and you could count on different girls to make plays in moments.”
Villa Park had five players score in double-figures in its first-round win over Palos Verdes and got contributions from its entire lineup again Saturday. Three players scored in double-figures and three players had over five rebounds.
Lauren Wolfe led Villa Park with 20 points, including nine in the third quarter when the Spartans built a comfortable lead. Wolfe had a team-high 19 points the first time Villa Park played Santa Margarita.
“I feel I played well but the whole team played amazing,” Wolfe said. “It felt amazing to beat them when it mattered.”
“She gets the ball and you kind of see a calmness on her,” Willis said of Wolfe. “Players when they get pressure, sometimes they embrace it and sometimes they don’t, she embraces it. She loves the moment. She was a very patient player with the ball and set girls up to get by them.”
Villa Park went on an 8-0 run in the final minutes of the first half to go into halftime with a 28-20 lead. The Spartans shined defensively and forced eight turnovers from Santa Margarita while having only one turnover.
Santa Margarita went on an 8-2 run to open the second half which prompted a Villa Park timeout. Villa Park responded with an 11-0 run to end the third quarter and took a 13-point lead into the fourth.
The Spartans held Santa Margarita’s top scorer, Elle Palmer, to eight points and held the Eagles to 24 percent shooting from 3-point range.
“She burned us in the first game and when we game-planned we said we are not going to let her go off today,” Willis said of Palmer.
Madi Lam led Santa Margarita with 11 points, had six assists and a pair of steals on defense. Lam spent her first two years of high school at Esperanza, so Villa Park’s coaching staff was very familiar with her skillset.
“Madi is a tremendous player and we knew it was going to take a Herculean effort to knock her out of the playoffs,” Willis said. “She’s familiar with our schools in our area and knew it would be a big game for her and it took a huge effort for us to try to slow her down.”
Sabina Patel had 11 points for Villa Park and made three crucial 3-pointers. Bailey Roczey had 11 points with five assists and six rebounds.
Olivia Sturdivant had nine points and a team-high eight rebounds. Madelyn Martinez had seven points and was crucial in Villa Park’s defensive effort.
Janaya Willliams had 10 points with five rebounds for Santa Margarita.
Villa Park entered the week ranked No. 6 in the Orange County Top 25 and Santa Margarita is ranked No. 10.