Serra falls 56-55, Mitty claims WCAL crown

With 44 seconds remaining, however, Mitty (11-2 WCAL, 17-6 overall) took its first lead on the game’s last points, sealing a 56-55 win Friday night at Morton Family Gymnasium. With the win, the Monarchs wrapped up their first West Catholic Athletic League championship in five years.

“Mitty did a good job of speeding up the tempo and it just kind of got us out of our rhythm,” Rapp said. “I never really felt like we were in sync. We hit some shots early. And that was kind of fool’s gold, though, because we weren’t really flowing.”

The Padres (9-4, 17-6) opened on a 9-2 run, and opened up a 20-6 lead by the end of the first quarter. Serra forward Cade Rees had a busy quarter, totaling eight points, seven rebounds and an assist through the opening eight minutes. He’d go on to record a double-double with 21 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

It was senior guard Parker McDonald who sparked the Padres though, opening with the red-hot hand from 3-point land. McDonald nailed three 3s in the opening period, during which Serra shot 4 of 8 from beyond the arc.

Getting into a 3-point shootout with Mitty though is dangerous territory. And while the Padres technically outshot the Monarchs on 3-pointers — Serra was 8 of 18 throughout; Mitty was 7 of 18 — the Monarchs closed with a bang, draining 5 of 6 treys in the fourth quarter.

“That’s their game, not ours,” Rapp said. “They’re the best 3-point shooting team in the WCAL, and we’re not. And, again, I think that was kind of fool’s gold with some shots going in, and that got us away from what we usually do. And in the end that hurt us.”

Mitty forward Mason Ryan buried the dagger that gave his team its first lead with 44 seconds to go. The junior was MItty’s biggest presence on the boards, grabbing a team-high eight rebounds. But in the fourth quarter, he sank two of the biggest 3s of the game.

Ryan’s first 3 came with 3:49 to go, and gave Mitty its first even footing of the game at 51-51. Then after Serra broke a 53-53 tie with a minute to play when junior Julius Alcantara hit a layup on a bounce-pass from McDonald — who finished with five assists — the Monarchs took it right back down for Ryan to take an assist pass from Marcus Greene and pop the game-winning.

“On that last play I saw Marcus, Marcus got me that ball, and I knew it was going to go down,” Ryan said. “That was a big shot.”

Mitty had responded to the first-quarter deficit by picking up the tempo on defense, attempting to fluster Serra with a full-court press to start the second quarter. The Padres immediately broke the trap to go up 22-8. But the Monarchs responded with a 14-2 run, closing the deficit to 24-22 on an offensive board and put-back by Ryan.

Serra junior Antonio Abeyta gave his team some breathing room before the half, hitting back-to-back long-range jumpers. He hit an 18-footer with just over a minute left in the half to up the lead to 26-22. On the Padres’ next possession, he drilled a 3 on his way to netting 11 points.

With Serra taking a 41-37 lead into the fourth quarter, the two teams opened with a 3-point derby, answering trey for trey. Devan Sapp hit a pair for the Monarchs — he’d go on to score a game-high 22 points — while McDonald and senior Darren Barton answered with one apiece for the Padres.

Mitty, though, outshot Serra by plenty over the final period, going 7 of 11 from the field. The Monarchs shot 46.9 percent from the field throughout.

After the Monarchs took the lead on Ryan’s 3, things got really wild over the closing, scoreless, 44 seconds.

Serra came back down and got the ball into the hands of McDonald — he totaled a team-high 16 points — who got a good look at a 3-point attempt but could not get it to fall. Rees crashed in for an attempt at an offensive rebound, but was called for an over-the-back foul with 14.9 seconds to go.

Mitty, however, could not inbound on the ensuing possession, turning it over on a five-second violation. The Padres looked in good shape as they inbounded to Rees, who drove a lane and drew a foul on the way into the paint. At first the senior looked to be going to the free-throw line, but a non-shooting foul was assessed as the contact came just prior to his getting into the key to attempt his shot.

“I thought I was going to go to the line but the ref called what he called; it happens that way,” Rees said. “We had another chance with a few seconds left in the game. We took a shot. The ball ended up in our hands, we didn’t make it. The ball rolls that way sometimes.”

Serra took another baseline inbound, and got it to Abeyta, who hurried a fade-away 3 that did not fall.

“In a high-intensity game like that, the blood’s rushing, you want to get up a shot,” Rees said. “And in addition, you want to get a chance at an offensive rebound in case of a miss.”

But Sapp gathered the rebound for Mitty and that was that.

Serra remains in second place in the WCAL, and now will close the regular season Tuesday at Riordan. With Riordan and Bellarmine — tied for third place in the WCAL, each one game back of Serra — playing Saturday, the finale in San Francisco, depending on Saturday’s outcome, could be a battle for second place.