Padres let one get away at Mitty

“You feel like you should have won,” Serra head coach Chuck Rapp said. “It’s one of the toughest games in basketball, is when you lose when you should have won. You control the game and you put yourself in a position to win. And we just couldn’t bring it home.”

Senior forward Parker McDonald broke a 52-52 tie, hitting 1 of 2 from the stripe with 49 seconds to play. But the Monarchs (5-2 WCAL, 11-6 overall) answered back with their eighth 3-pointer of the night, as junior Marcus Greene converted with 25.7 seconds remaining for what proved to be the game-winner.

Greene hit just the one trey in the contest to become the third Monarchs scorer to reach double figures. Sophomore point guard Michael Mitchell netted a team-high 12 points, junior Devan Sapp scored 11 and Greene finished with 10.

The go-ahead 3 was a secondary look to Greene. With Mitty needing just a 2-pointer to take the lead, the initial play design called to set a screen up top for Sapp. With the Serra defense breaking through Mitty’s elevator doors, however, the outlet went to Greene in the corner.

“Once that wasn’t there … that left me open in the corner,” Greene said, “and I just knocked it down.”

Serra (4-3, 12-5) immediately called a timeout and, with plenty of time left at 25.7 seconds to play for the last shot, set a play for McDonald. The senior put the Padres on his shoulders in the fourth quarter, scoring a game-high 16 points, including six in the final period.

With Mitty’s defense swarming McDonald, however, the Padres looked to forward Cade Rees in the post.

“Just trying to swarm them and just make sure they don’t get an open look and not foul them,” Mitty head coach Tim Kennedy said. “But when they got inside, we knew they were running out of time.”

With the clock winding down, Rees took a pass at the baseline and tried to walk the tightrope. But a Monarchs double-team forced him to attempt a tight shot — too tight as it turned out — as the senior’s attempt at an underhand layup hit the back of the backboard, giving Mitty the ball back with three seconds to play.

“I don’t think he realized how much time he had,” Rapp said. “He had a little more time than he thought. He could have dribbled back out. But, it’s a tough play. He’s in a tough spot where he can’t see the clock. He had more time than he thought. But that happens. It just didn’t work out.”

The two teams played evenly in all phases of the game. Serra shot 40.9 percent (18 of 44) from the field to Mitty’s 39.2 percent (20 of 51). Serra committed 10 turnovers to Mitty’s 11. And each team grabbed 28 rebounds, something of a moral victory for the Monarchs, whose 6-3 senior post Joseph Vaughn did not play due to taking a recruiting trip to Yale University.

The Padres’ worst stretch came in the final quarter, however, with five fourth-period turnovers their undoing.

Mitty was ice cold in the first quarter, shooting just 4 of 14 from the field. Then the Monarchs committed six turnovers in the second quarter, with Serra taking a 26-22 lead into halftime.

“We were having a rough time scoring,” Kennedy said. “… I feel like (point guard) Mike Mitchell did a nice job running our offense the whole game. Even in the first half, getting a couple buckets, getting some open shots — they didn’t go down either — but I feel he kind of ran the show for us and kept us steady even though shots weren’t dropping.”

The Monarchs righted the ship to open the second half, as their first four scores were all 3-point plays — with back-to-back treys from Sapp and junior Jacob Ryan to start the half, followed by an and-1 from Greene, and then a 3 from junior Owen Browne.

Despite the spree of 3s, the Padres answered back with a pair of put-backs from senior forward Dominic Bartlewski. Junior guard Ryan Wilson and senior guard Patrick Simon added 3s later in the quarter, and senior guard Darren Barton finished the period banking an underhand layup to give Serra a 42-40 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The Padres quickly bumped their lead to 45-40 on a 3 by senior forward Cooper Fitz. But midway through the quarter, Serra committed two sloppy ball-handling turnovers then missed a pair of free throws, which let Mitty catch up with baseline layup by Sapp to tie it 49-49.

“I think some of it has to do with inexperience,” Rapp said. “There’s not much playing time and experience on this roster. … When you’re in situations like that, it’s human nature, you get tight.”

Had it not been for the defense of McDonald, the game would have gotten away from Serra right then and there. But McDonald forgave much of the Padres’ ball-handling woes by drumming up two steals.

“He was really good,” Rapp said. “And, again, there’s a guy with some experience. … He kept us in the game, and he put us in a position to win the game. We just couldn’t bring it home.”

McDonald gave Serra a 52-49 lead with 2:12 to go on an impressive step-back 3. Mitty answered right back, though, with Greene dropping a dime beyond the arc for a 3 by Mitchell to tie it heading into the game’s final minute.

Mitty faced a similar finish in its previous game, leading with 40 seconds remaining in an eventual 59-58 loss last Wednesday to first-place Riordan. Overcoming Serra in the closing minute was redeeming win, according to Greene.

“It’s big for us,” Greene said. “Just taking down a top team. And also, coming off the loss [to] Riordan, it was a hard loss. But we came back, battled, and we’re on to the next game.”

For the Padres, following a momentous comeback with over Riordan Jan. 8, they have now lost three of their last four, including 61-49 to St. Ignatius and 62-53 to Bellarmine.