Serra drops second straight

With all eyes on Mitty’s 7-foot junior Nick Gklaros-Stavropoulos, the Monarchs (7-2 WCAL, 13-6 overall) flowed inside-out through their half-court sets to shoot the lights out in the early going, converting 7 of 11 from long range in the first half.

“Everybody against us shoots the lights out,” Serra head coach Chuck Rapp said. “That’s just kind of a rule.”

The Padres (3-6, 11-8) have already qualified for the Central Coast Section postseason by virtue of their 8-2 non-league record, but their back-to-back loses have dropped them to fifth-place outright in the West Catholic Athletic League standings.

Serra has first-place Riordan on its schedule Tuesday, but that game is likely to be postponed with the temporary closure of the San Francisco campus due to an outbreak of tuberculosis, and the reigning CIF Northern California Open Division champion Crusaders’ last two games being halted as a result.

“Honestly, the season has been kind of rough,” Serra senior Sebastian Margate said. “We just lost on [Thursday] by a large margin. We still don’t believe this is who we are. ... This is not us. We have a lot of talented players, guys going to college. ... So, we’re trying to hang in there.”

Mitty junior Brady Clugage sparked the offense with a pair of early 3-pointers, and drilled another from up top in the second quarter en route scoring a team-high 16 points. Senior forward Joseph Seifu got in on the act with two second-quarter 3s, while junior Isaac Turner came off the bench to hit two from long range in the half as well.

“I thought we did a really good job of getting paint touches and sharing it,” Mitty head coach Tim Kennedy said, “and guys were shooting the right shots. And they really trusted each other. So, when we’re rolling like that ... the ball seems to go in when you’re taking the right ones.”

The Monarchs pushed the lead to 32-19 by the half, with little production from Gklaros-Stavropoulos — who finished with four points and five rebounds, overall — though the presence of the transfer from St. Francis loomed large.

“How much space he’s winning, he created so many open shots for our guys,” Kennedy said. “So, it was huge. He takes up that low post, and when he’s sealing big, if you don’t double, he’s got a bucket right there. So, the guys were ready to shoot.”

Serra forward Wyatt Blanco finished with a game-high 19 points, including a fiery eight-point first quarter. From there, the Monarchs accelerated their reactive perimeter defense, and tempered the Padres to just three made shots in the second — two of them on tossed into the post for layups from big man Jace Cannon — to outscore Serra 15-6 in the quarter.

“I think we were really just trying to get the ball to move,” Rapp said. “We kind of got stagnant, the ball got kind of sticky, and that was their main emphasis, is just move the ball.”

Serra’s saving grace was getting into the bonus with a minute and a half remaining in the third quarter. The Padres took eight free throws in that span, and got to the stripe for 12 attempts in the quarter, hitting nine of them, and narrowing the deficit to single digits 43-34.

“We haven’t been getting to the line much in general,” Rapp said. “On the road, we’ve been getting some horrendous officiating. So, it was good to finally get to the line.”

Seifu, however, got two points on one stroke from the stripe when he pulled up for a jumper at the end of the third period to push the lead to 45-34. Mitty senior Daniel Ryan then capped a 7-0 run spanning into the fourth with a steal and score to push it to 50-34.

“We went into the fourth quarter just trying to play desperate,” Margate said. “I felt like although we did lost, the coaches were definitely proud of our effort. I think it definitely showed. We just haven’t been able to hit the shots or anything.”

Mitty shot 40.1% from the field overall, with Serra scuffling at 29.8%.

Cannon had a gritty showing of 12 points with a game-high eight rebounds, but Mitty out-rebounded the Padres 32-27 overall.

Turner finished with 13 points, while Seifu, Ryan and senior Amani LaMere-Smith scored eight apiece.