Serra held its own

Serra lost the game in the third quarter when the Padres were outscored 20-6 by Westchester and the Padres lost by 21, 66-45.

As Serra forward Decensae White said after the game, "I don't feel like they were 21 points better than us."

The Lounge agrees. If you weren't there, the final score looks like a blowout loss for Serra. The Lounge believes it quite the contrary. Serra stared straight into the eyes of the Comets and didn't blink. For a half, the Padres played at the same level as the Comets. Sure, the Padres had their problems in the third quarter, but it wasn't like Westchester took them out of their game. The Comets weren't denying the Padres' offensively, the Padres still got off 14 shots. The difference was Serra made only three of its attempts while Westchester was 8 for 15 — including 3 of 7 from behind the 3-point arc.

To tell you the truth, that was a quarter the Lounge was expecting from Serra all through its playoff run. It seemed of the Padres' eight losses this season, most of them occurred when they had that one clunker quarter — the eight-minute span where they scored only two or four points.

"The games we lose, that happens to us," White said. "It's always a close game at halftime. When we played good teams like Santa Cruz or De La Salle or Newark, Santa Cruz blew us out in the third quarter, this team blew us out in the third quarter, but against Newark we stayed in the game."

Once the Padres got to the postseason, however, they played with a consistency that hadn't been seen all year long. It was that consistent play that earned them their second-straight Central Coast Section title and the school's first-ever Northern California championship and first trip to the state final.

Throw out the third quarter and Westchester's lead is only seven, 46-39. This game was a classic example of the final score not telling the whole story about the game.

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After all the hype about Westchester, the Comets didn't live up to their reputation.

All the talk leading up to the championship game was about Westchester's 6-foot-10-inch, Louisville-bound center Amir Johnson and the three other Division I college signees the Comets possessed. There was also the chatter about seven players 6 foot 5 inches or taller.

Yet the Padres more than held their own against the Comets. Westchester outrebounded Serra by only eight — 42-34. The one area that Westchester made the biggest difference was on the offensive glass where the Comets had a 19-12 advantage.

Johnson finished with a double-double — 15 points and 11 rebounds — but he had to work for all of those. Of his 15 points, five came at the free throw line.

Serra can once again thank the yeoman's work put in by senior center Will Powers, who had the task of defending Johnson for most of the game. He got help from 6-foot-7-inch forward Tommy McMahon and 6-foot-6-inch White, but Powers was the main man.

For a guy who is going to Stanford on a football scholarship, Powers is one heck of a basketball player. In the final two games of his basketball career, Powers held Castlemont's 6-foot-9-inch Chris Oakes and Johnson to a combined 25 points and 20 rebounds — numbers most people expected Oakes and Johnson to have individually in each game.

The Lounge expected highlight-reel plays all game long from the Comets, but it was the Padres who had the fans coming out of their seats — from Chaz Thomas and White floating running layups over Johnson to Powers' slam off a missed shot.

Westchester, for the most part, looked like any of the top teams Serra faced in West Catholic Athletic League play.

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Despite being a four-time state champion, the Lounge gives Westchester props for behaving with class and dignity. The Lounge can't ever remember seeing one Comet player pound his chest after making a basket, there was no hot-dogging or classless displays. The Comets were a very workmanlike team that acted like they had been there before — which they have.

And they were very respectful of Serra during and after the game. Westchester won the like true champions — with poise and class.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. What do you think of this column? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.