Sacred Heart Prep falls in San Diego Surf and Slam finals

Through three games — including a 73-52 win over Ogden-Utah in Wednesday’s opener, followed by Thursday’s 66-22 landslide over Christian-El Cajon — the Gators totaled 25 made 3s in the tourney, including 10 in Saturday’s finale. Wagner led the way with five 3s in scoring a game-high 19 points, but it wasn’t enough against the reigning Sac-Joaquin Section Division II champs.

“The first two games show what we can do when we play together and when we have energy on the court at all times,” Wagner said. “And then the last game shows what happens when we get too stagnant and don’t buy in to the togetherness play as much.”

The Gators (7-4) have impressively navigated a challenging non-league schedule without 6-5 center Matthew Norris. The junior big is expected to return from injury in mid-January, but they could have used him in San Diego.

The guard trio was productive, for sure, with Kerrigan adding four 3s to score 14 points. He and Wagner were named to the Surf Division all-tournament team. Despite this, SHP head coach Tony Martinelli said Saturday’s game wasn’t the team’s best performance shooting wise, with little inside scoring presence allowing Whitney to keep up the perimeter pressure.

“That kind of snowballed into everything else,” Martinelli said.

“Having that threat on the floor, those three guys, that’s a luxury,” Martinelli said of his guards, “… just didn’t get the scores inside that we need to take the pressure off them.”

Whitney (11-6) led throughout, but SHP did keep it close most of the way. The Gators cut it to 29-27 heading into halftime, but Whitney junior Ely Willis — who earned tournament MVP honors — scored a team-high 14 points as the Wildcats pulled away in the second half.

“A lot of just one-possessions and just having to play a lot of defense,” Martinelli said.

The loss was SHP’s first in over two weeks, since falling Dec. 14 at Serra 53-45. The Gators went on to defeat two West Catholic Athletic League teams at the DJ Frandsen Memorial Tournament at Bellarmine — 60-58 over the Bells, followed by 70-69 over St. Francis.

Traveling to the San Diego Surf and Slam is a long tradition for SHP. It is the eighth time the Gators have played in the tourney, their last appearance coming in 2021-22.

“I thought the on-court stuff was really good,” Martinelli said. “I got to see a bunch of different guys playing, which was nice. … That’s always really a positive when you travel like this and have three different games. … It just didn’t end the way we wanted to … but overall, just a real positive experience.”

The Gators enjoyed plenty of team bonding off the court, including go kart racing and a trip to Dave & Buster’s. At their hotel, they spent time playing the video game NBA 2K as well as some poker, with senior Matthew Wendling proving the team’s resident card shark as the big winner there.

“I think the biggest things came off the court, honestly,” Wagner said. “We were all hanging out together … so, I think we got way closer as a team. … Even though the last game didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, we all had a ton of fun on the trip. So, that was a huge highlight.”