Serra closes with a bang at Burlingame

After Serra took a 42-40 lead at the end of the third quarter on senior Clausen Schmidt’s transition jumper for the game’s seventh lead change, Burlingame kept it close on a long-range 2 by senior Payton Fong Heady to keep it close at 44-42 at the start of the fourth. But the Padres kept the Panthers off the board for the next six minutes, while going on a 9-0 run to take the game in hand.

“I think we kind of woke up,” Serra head coach Chuck Rapp said. “The first half, I didn’t think we applied as much pressure as we should, and we do in practice all the time. It was a hostile environment, a good crowd, the first time we’ve really played in a game like that with a big crowd this year. So, that takes a while top kind of get used to it.”

Serra shot a tepid 8 of 26 from the field in the first half, including just one made 3, with Burlingame taking a 25-23 lead into the locker room. Then came the second-half fireworks, as both teams set a blistering pace from jump following the break.

“We were just super excited,” Burlingame junior Max Robenalt said. “This is a WCAL team, and we’re a public school. So, we’re like: ‘C’mon!’ We lost by like 30 last year, so we were trying to get it back this year. But we came up short.”

Serra senior Ryan Rice shared the team-high of 14 points with senior point guard Sebastian Margate and senior guard Wyatt Blanco. And Rice’s driving layup tied the game at 25-all at the start of the second half. Serra senior Tyler Bailey then dunked to give the Padres a lead, but Burlingame fired back with Robenalt drilling a wing 3.

Rice responded by taking aim for a deep 3 and cashing in to swing the Padres ahead 30-28, and back and forth they went until Robenalt hit a corner 3 to give the Panthers a 35-34 advantage. They’d lead by as much as 38-34 after junior David Parrot hit a 3, but Blanco shot back with a 3 of his own to spark an 8-2 Serra run to close out the quarter.

The Padres shot 42% from the field throughout, including 8 of 11 in the third quarter, fueled by three assists from Margate.

Then came a dominant defensive showing in the final quarter by Serra center Jace Cannon — making his season debut after a deep postseason run with the football team — leading the way for a whole lot of offensive rebounds by the Padres.

“He’s just gradually getting back into basketball shape,” Rapp said. “He’s starting to get bouncier. I noticed when he first started, he had his football legs. But he’s starting to get his sea legs now, and each practice he looks a little more comfortable out there, a little bouncier, a little better out there.”

Serra out-rebounded Burlingame 27-17 in the game, with the Padres totaling seven offensive boards in the fourth quarter, including three on one series midway through the period.

“Once we got our football guys, that part of our game has really stepped up,” Rapp said.

Blanco put on a show down the stretch, driving hard to the bucket to lay it in while drawing a foul. The senior converted the and-1 to up the lead to 47-42. His next time down the floor was a breakaway on a takeaway, with the 6-2 senior slamming it home, and earning a technical foul for doing a pull-up on the rim.

The tech didn’t help the Panthers, as they missed both free throws. Burlingame finished shooting 54% from the field, but put up just nine shots in the fourth quarter, converting four. Three of them came with less than a minute to play, including last-ditch 3s from senior Jean-Luc Uharriet and sophomore Lucca Maher.

Maher finished with a game-high 18 points.

Burlingame hosted five games Friday night — boys’ varsity, junior-varsity and freshman, and girls varsity and junior-varsity — a new record for the school’s brand-new athletics building. The packed boys’ varsity crown in the main gymnasium did not disappoint.

“It was insane,” Robenalt said. “We had the whole student section, all my boys. So, it was pretty crazy.”