Serra Padres snap two-game skid in WCAL boys’ basketball play

Serra’s two-game slide started the previous Saturday with a 50-49 loss at Valley Christian. Then came Wednesday’s 61-38 loss to St. Francis, the Padres’ most lopsided West Catholic Athletic League defeat since Jan. 14, 2020.

“[Beating Mitty] was huge, and that’s one of the reasons we’re so excited,” Serra head coach Chuck Rapp said. “We look at the loss at Valley as a missed opportunity. We came back and there might have been a bit of a hangover from the Valley game, and we weren’t ready to go. I didn’t have them ready to go, and that’s my fault as a coach. And St. Francis beat us pretty convincingly. So, this was a big bounce back.”

By the numbers, seniors Garret Keyhani and Miles Klapper led the Padres’ charge past Mitty (4-1, 11-4). And their performances were invaluable. Each went for double-doubles, with Keyhani totaling 14 points and 14 rebounds, while Klapper went for a game-high 23 points with 14 rebounds, including 8 for 8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

Beyond the box score, though, senior guard Brady Smith led the way, especially on the defensive end. The Padres were tasked with containing Mitty forward Derek Sangster. And the rotating man defense, with Smith often drawing the matchup with Sangster early on, was effective in limiting the 6-6 junior to 13 points and seven rebounds.

“He’s a great player and one of our goals was to slow him down,” Rapp said. “We were able to do that on defense. It wasn’t like one guy shutting him down. It was different bodies rotating through, and that’s the way we do. Team defense … five guys moving on a string.”

And while Smith totaled nine points — the margin of Serra’s victory — his two third-quarter layups were critical. His first field goal of the night came with Serra clinging to a 23-20 advantage, as he drove through a tight interior defense to score a finger-roll. Then he capped the period with a runaway transition layup to give the Padres a 29-22 lead.

“That’s huge because we’ve kind of been waiting for him to get going,” Rapp said. “And this is the first time he kind of got hot in a while. And that gives us that third scorer, and that’s what we really need. So, I thought Brady was huge. He might have been the player of the game. He defended and did all that, but that added offense was just enough to push us over the top.”

The game was defined by defense, especially early on. The Padres jumped out to a 6-4 lead in the first quarter and never trailed again. That 6-4 lead, however, wasn’t achieved until there was 1:44 remaining in the period. Serra opened by shooting 1 of 7 from the floor over the first eight minutes. Mitty was even worse, shooting at a 2-of-15 clip through the first period, including 0 of 8 from 3-point territory.

But when the big man, Keyhani, drilled Serra’s first 3-pointer of the night to take that 6-4 lead, it helped the Padres settle in from the outside. Sure, Serra was never able to get any consistent penetration throughout the game — but Keyani and company found a way.

“When that happens, we’ve just got to use that to our advantage, just use the attention in the middle to get it outside and hit shots,” Keyhani said. “The last two games we lost we were in a shooting slump. Those two games combined we were 4 for 36 from 3s. That’s not a winning recipe. But today we were out of our slump, hitting shots, so the attention that was on the inside, we were able to punish them on the outside with the 3s.”

As it turns out, Keyhani — a 6-8 post player for the Padres — said his natural position is shooting forward, where his pretty good Klay Thompson impersonation translates to being a 3-point specialist with his AAU club team.

“Coming into this season, all I did was play on the perimeter and shoot 3s,” Keyhani said. “This is my first time ever touching the post. But they gave me that role, I’ve tried to work with it and see what I can do, and just do the best I can do to help the team.”

Klapper was clutch from beyond the arc as well. The senior tallied three 3s in the game, his most impressive coming at the start of the fourth quarter. Running the point, Klapper dribbled the ball at the top of the key and looked to get a step against a 1-on-1 defender. Instead, he lagged several steps back of the arc, then quickly squared up for a step-back 3.

“Just late on the shot clock, I had a big on me, so I just tried to pull it out,” Klapper said. “Initially I was going to try to go by him, but he kind of stepped back so I just let it fly.”

Down the stretch, Klapper and company won it from the stripe, as the Padres closed the game converting 12 straight free throws.

“We’ve been really good down the stretch with free throws, and that just makes the end of the game so much easier,” Rapp said.

It’s a good thing, too. Serra shot just 34.3% from the floor throughout. But the Padres dominated in other areas, winning the rebounding battle 41-30. And while Mitty junior Aidan Burke scored a team-high 17 points, the Padres held the Monarchs to a mere 26.4% shooting, including 4 of 23 on 3-pointers.

“We made it into a rock fight, and that’s what we’ve got to do,” Rapp said. “That’s our style of basketball, and that’s a really good team we were playing. So, we had to make it ugly, and ugly is beautiful to us. … I know Mitty didn’t shoot very well, but I’d like to think some of it was our defense.”