Serra holds off Irish in OT

And they were. The Padres never trailed and yet needed overtime to get past the Irish 76-69 in the regular-season finale in San Mateo Tuesday night.

“It’s never … easy in this league,” Rapp said. “Give [SHC] credit.”

Serra (5-9 WCAL, 13-11 overall) got a game-high 20 points from Wyatt Blanco, 12 coming in the second half and overtime. He was one of four Padres scoring in double figures. Jace Cannon and Ryan Rice both finished with 12 points, while Bas Margate chipped in 11, including going 5 for 6 at the free throw line down the stretch in overtime.

Sacred Heart Cathedral (1-13, 8-16) forced overtime by outscoring Serra 15-9 in the fourth quarter. A Ryan Rice 3-pointer put the Padres up 59-50 with 5:52 left in regulation, but the Irish responded with 11-2 run, draining three 3s along the way. Jaden Hector’s 3 with 1:22 left in the fourth tied the game at 61-all. Blanco put the Padres back ahead with a driving layup with 47 seconds left, but Hector hit two free throws with just 25 seconds left to tie the score.

Serra’s last-second shot from Blanco missed and the teams went to overtime.

In the extra period, Cannon used a power move in the post to give the Padres a lead they would not relinquish as they outscored the Irish 13-6 to take the win.

It seemed as if the Padres were poised to run away with this one. They never trailed, but could never quite get what Rapp called, “Comfortable.” Serra’s biggest lead was 10 points, leading 36-26 with 6:59 left in the first half.

But each time, Sacred Heart Cathedral (1-13, 8-16) would go on a run to stay in the game.

Rapp said his team may have been thrown off by Senior Night for the 10 seniors on the team, but it didn’t seem to affect the Padres’ offense, as they opened with a 22-point first quarter.

But it was on the defensive side that Rapp felt was lacking.

“Defensively, in the first half, we were poor,” Rapp said. “Everything was too easy (for the Irish).”

So despite scoring 22 points in the first quarter, Serra was only up six, 22-16. The Padres scored the first two buckets of the second quarter to push their lead to 10, but the Irish responded with a 6-0 run to close to 26-22. SHC finally managed to pull even at 34-all on drive to the basket by Colin Wicks, but the Padres took a 36-34 lead at halftime on a pair of Blanco free throws.

The Irish scored the first bucket of the second half to knot the score at 36-all, but the Padres responded with a 12-3 run. Blanco converted a three-point play, followed by a Rice muscling up a layup, followed by a 3. Blanco converted a layup on a trailing fastbreak and Cannon scored on a putback to put the Padres’ up 48-39 with 4:08 left in the third.

In addition to his 12 points, Cannon also came up with seven rebounds, five coming on the offensive glass. Of the Padres’ 33 rebounds, 13 were offensive.

“The biggest thing was our offensive rebounding,” Rapp said. “That was the best thing we did.”

When Clausen Schmidt scored on a putback, Serra led 54-48 going into the fourth before the Irish rallied to force overtime.

There will be little time to rest for Serra, however, as the Central Coast Section seeding meeting is Wednesday afternoon in San Jose. Despite just a 5-9 mark in WCAL, the Padres’ winning non-league record and overall record qualifies them for the playoffs.

But will it be good enough to get an Open Division invitation? Serra has played in the Open Division every season since its inception 2013. The top eight teams in the section make the Open Division bracket, but MaxPreps.com has Serra ranked ninth in CCS.

Does it matter?

“We consider ourselves an Open program. That’s what the kids want,” Rapp said. “But I don’t have any control over it.”