RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA — In a game that featured two vastly different styles of play, Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks’ style won the night Tuesday against Santa Margarita.

Notre Dame’s dominance inside led the Knights to a 67-59 win over Santa Margarita in a CIF-SS Open Division playoff game at Santa Margarita High.

Notre Dame (26-6 overall) is now 3-0 in pool play with wins over JSerra, La Mirada and Santa Margarita.

“You win in February by defending, rebounding and making free throws,” Notre Dame coach Matt Sargeant said. “If we continue to defend and rebound the way we have, we are going to keep winning games.”

Santa Margarita (22-7) is 0-2 in pool play with losses to Notre Dame and Trinity League rival JSerra.

“We just have to stay the course. I thought we competed really hard tonight,” Santa Margarita coach Justin Bell said. “Notre Dame is a really good team and we competed. It’s not the first time we’ve dropped two in a row. We just have to get refocused, get back up on the horse and get better.”

The recipe for Notre Dame’s success was the inside play of forward Tyran Stokes and point guard Angelino ‘Lino’ Mark, a Rutgers commit. Stokes had 25 points with 13 rebounds and Mark added 20 points off the bench.

Fourteen of Stokes’ points came in the paint and so did 10 of Mark’s points. Notre Dame had 34 points in the paint compared to 18 for Santa Margarita.

“When they can get in the paint and make good choices, we are pretty hard to guard,” Sergeant said of Stokes and Mark.

Notre Dame’s ability to get the ball inside led to multiple Santa Margarita players getting in foul trouble early. It also created a free throw discrepancy with Notre Dame attempting 27 free throws compared to seven for Santa Margarita.

“We are a team that values free throws and layups more than threes,” Sergeant said. “We really want to put pressure on opponents with our driving. At the high school level, if you get in the paint, people make bad choices and foul.”

“They obviously wanted to drive the ball and we have to do a better job of stepping over and stopping it,” Bell said. “Taking 20 less free throws isn’t a good recipe. I’m not saying it was a poorly officiated game at all. They drove the ball hard and we didn’t do a good enough job.”

Santa Margarita was able to stay in the game with its 3-point shooting. The Eagles shot 43 percent from 3-point range in the second half and made 10 3-pointers in the game.

Santa Margarita trailed by nine points in the final two minutes of the game but cut the lead to two when Kaiden Bailey made a 3-pointer and was fouled with 36 seconds remaining. Bailey missed the subsequent free throw and Notre Dame was able to put the game away on the other end of the court.

Bailey led Santa Margarita with 19 points and made three 3-pointers. Brayden Kyman had 13 points with nine rebounds and Dallas Washington added 13 points.

Santa Margarita will host La Mirada on Friday. Both teams are 0-2 in pool play.

Notre Dame will play on the road against Mission League rival Harvard-Westlake on Friday. The Knights lost both games to Harvard-Westlake during the regular season.

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