Serra earns first state title

The Serra basketball team has touted the sum-of-its-part attack all season long. Oh what a season it was. And with the Padres thrust into the limelight of the 2016 CIF Division II state championship game at Sleep Train Arena, they used the stage to show off the full range of grit, guile and outright basketball savvy that got them there.

Once senior forward Jake Killingsworth got cooking, there was no stopping Serra in its march to a 48-43 win over Southern California champion Long Beach Poly, marking the first victory in a state championship game, for any sport, in Padres history.

“This is huge,” Serra head coach Chuck Rapp said. “We had a chance to do something that’s never been done before and that’s so rare and so special. And to plant that state banner for the whole Padre nation is really quite special. I’m really proud of these guys. … What a great group, an historic group and a special group. And this will be a day I will remember for the rest of my life.”

As he has been throughout the CIF tourney, Killingsworth was a double-double force to the tune of 15 points and 16 rebounds.

With the Padres trailing 19-14 with 3:35 remaining in the first half, Killingsworth sparked a 13-2 run that would last until midway through the third quarter.

“Jake is like an automatic double-double … you just kind of pencil them in and you depend on it,” Rapp said. “Just rock solid, super consistent for us the last two years. Jake is a special player at Serra High School and he’s definitely left his mark.”

The West Catholic Athletic League Player of the Year fed and assist pass to senior center John Besse for a short jump shot to close it to 19-16. Then Killingsworth himself scored nine of Serra’s next 11 points to stun a fast-paced Long Beach team and set the stage for the Padres’ dominant closing act.

“Just knowing we were so close to something special, it was unbelievable,” Killingsworth said. “To be able to pull it out is something else.”

Killingsworth made something out of nothing to tie it in the final minute of the first half to tie it 19-19. During a Serra possession, Long Beach almost scrapped a steal, but in trying to save the ball from careening out of bounds, the ball was chucked to the top of the key and quickly found its way to Killingsworth in the post. The 6-5 forward pounded in the shot and picked up the foul, converting the three-point play.

Rebounding is the difference

After Long Beach took a quick lead to start the second half on a jumper by Drew Buggs, Besse tied it again with a tip-in off an offensive board to tie it at 21-21. Then Killingsworth knocked down back-to-back jumpers before producing a massive momentum swing. After a Serra misfire, the adept floor tactician glided through three bodies in the post to be the first one to the ball for a stunning put-back, giving Serra a 27-21 lead.

From there, Serra dictated the rhythm of the game while allowing Long Beach few second chances. The Jackrabbits shot 34 percent from the field, with Serra performing just a tad better at 35.6 percent. But Serra outrebounded Long Beach 35-28.

“We talked about it, that if we outrebound them we win the game,” Rapp said. “That was huge. They’re a super-athletic team that’s really strong on the boards. And we saw some great box outs where these guys were body on body with all five guys boxing out. That was fun to watch.”

Not so fun for Jackrabbits head coach Shelton Diggs however.

“We weren’t taking [shots] in the flow of our offense,” Diggs said. “So when it’s like that, guys aren’t in rebounding position. So, that’s why we couldn’t get rebounds. The shots [the Padres] were taking were all good shots within the flow of their offense. So, they had guys in the position to get the rebounds.”

Jones and Besse make presence felt

Serra’s senior starting five each had their moment in the spotlight down the stretch. Point guard Lee Jones added 13 points, coming up huge on free throws converting 9 of 11 from the stripe.

But it was Jones’ quickness to the cylinder that earned him many of those chances, not to mention drawing the defense for several no-look assists, including a gem to Killingsworth midway through the fourth quarter for an acrobatic baseline reverse lay-in to keep Serra’s lead in check at 35-30.

Besse added eight points but battled in the paint all night to free up Killingsworth on the boards. The 6-5 senior big man Besse totaled just four rebounds, but was called for a foul late in the fourth quarter after getting tangled up with Long Beach 6-6 junior forward Zafir Williams, who totaled a double-double of his own with a game-high 16 points and 10 rebounds.

It was the best evidence of the physicality used to lead Serra’s dominant post performance.

“It was just a competitive game all around,” Besse said. “They were really physical. [Williams] was getting really physical but it was all clean and everything. … It was just going back and forth. It was a good game. I’d want it that way. I wouldn’t want to play soft.”

Serra guard Miles Todzo hit the Padres’ only 3-pointer of the game. As a team they took just four shots from beyond the arc, caused by a deliberate tactic to concentrate on driving to the hoop.

“We just kind of make the play that presents itself and today,” Rapp said. “Especially with the big gym, I think attacking the rim was the best option, and these guys went there.”

Stepping up

All-WCAL forward Jeremiah Testa couldn’t find a groove with that approach nearly the entire game. He finished with eight points, but missed easy layup after easy layup and would convert just 2 of 12 from the floor.

In the fourth quarter, however, the athletic and oftentimes acrobatic Testa converted the two shots with the highest degree of difficulty of the night.

The first came on a baseline fade-away rainbow jumper that seemed to fly on angel’s wings over an outstretched defender to find nothing but net, improving the Serra lead to 39-33. The second came with under a minute to play on a long up-court pass that got loose in the key, only to see Testa sprint in, scoop it up and, as he went totally airborne, flipped an off-balance underhand finger-roll through the cylinder to give the Padres a commanding 43-35 lead.

According to Testa, however, the play that clinched the win was on the defensive end by sixth-man Cole Galli, who got in position to earn his second charging foul of the night. Not only did it give Serra the ball with a two-possession lead, it forced the second Long Beach starter off the floor in the final minutes, as both Buggs and Darryl Polk fouled out.

“[Galli] took two big charges and they were probably the two biggest plays of the game,” Testa said. “I admire him for that and I respect him for that. And he’s been doing that all year. Right when he did that … we were all fired up.”

After a spirited celebration at the buzzer, the Padres players gathered in the postgame media room, somehow fitting all 17 players in uniform on the team stage. None of the players acted surprised at the all-around team effort. It was a staple of the team’s approach since Day One of the season, a product of boasting no one elite superstar.

Serra, however — after falling in the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs — found its momentum as the No. 1 seed through the Northern California Division II tournament with wins over Leland-San Jose 83-49; Antelope 78-70; and El Cerrito 59-53 in the Nor Cal regional championship game.

But, in Rapp’s second trip to the state championship — his first was a Division-I loss to Westchester-Los Angeles in 2005 — the Padres obviously saved their best performance for last.

“That’s the sign of a championship team,” Rapp said. “They play big at big moments and this team came to play at the big time.”