SAN MATEO, CA — For years, the Bellarmine Bells have struggled to score at Serra. Last year, they had just 29 points until the final two minutes, yet picked up their first road win over the Padres since 2009. Those struggles once again manifested themselves at times on Tuesday night, but it was superior defense that ensured the WCAL leaders would need no late miracles in a 53-45 win.
Instead, Bellarmine (18-3, 10-1) retained sole possession of first place by holding the host Padres scoreless for a six-minute span in the fourth quarter and outscoring them 13-3 down the stretch. Serra took the lead with 6:25 to go on Parker McDonald’s 3-point play, but the Bells would trail for just 13 seconds, taking a 44-42 advantage on an acrobatic Kiran Kruse and-1 and not allowing a single basket until a three with just 2.7 seconds remaining as the defending league champions suffocated Serra throughout the fourth quarter at Morton Family Gymnasium.
Early on, Serra (12-9, 4-7) sliced through the Bellarmine defense, but after allowing 27 points in just over 11 minutes, the Bells switched to zone defense and kept the Padres at bay, allowing just four more in the first half and 14 total in the final 16 minutes. Best of all, the Bells never seemed to have any issues rebounding, allowing just three offensive rebounds in the zone, none of which led to points.
“Rebounding’s a big priority, in a zone or out of it,” said Jake Wojcik, who led Bellarmine with 15 points.
McDonald banked in a deep three to give Serra a 25-18 lead early in the second, and a Denzel McCollum coast-to-coast layup on the following possession stretched the lead to nine, but after a timeout, Bellarmine settled back down on offense, switched the defense to zone and regained control, leading to the first string of wins in back-to-back years at Serra for the Bells since the 1990s.
Kruse’s 3-pointer out of the timeout was huge for an offense that had scored just one point in the prior three minutes, as was Nathan Metzger’s three to open the third and trim the deficit to 31-27. Kruse would score on the following possession to bring Bellarmine within two, and the Bells would tie the game at 33 on a Connor Despie layup. Four straight points by Metzger stretched the lead to four late in the third, but Colin McCarthy brought Serra back within two with a great mid-range fadeaway jumper to close the quarter.
After Kruse put the top-ranked Bells ahead in the fourth, Despie made it 46-42 on a swift pull-up jumper to avoid taking a charge, and the lead grew to six when Kendall Stubblefield threaded the needle to find Wojcik under the basket with 3:26 left. From there, Bellarmine made just three of seven free throws, but it was more than enough as the Serra offense vanished until a Masie Mohammadi three in the dying seconds.
“A lot of our offensive continuity flows with ball movement,” said Serra head coach Chuck Rapp. “In the first half, we were able to get it, but then the ball got a little sticky and that’s when the shots started to roll kind of funny for us.”
Still, it was a markedly better performance from No. 8 Serra than Friday’s blowout loss at St. Ignatius.
“We had the lead in the fourth quarter against one of the top five teams in the Bay Area,” said Rapp. “I thought our offensive execution in the last six minutes was off, and that’s unfortunate, but for 26 minutes, I thought we outplayed Bellarmine.”
McCarthy led the way for Serra with 15 points, including seven in the first quarter, where the Padres used a 12-2 run to take an 18-13 lead after facing an early five-point deficit. Wojcik, who matched McCarthy with 15, also scored seven in the period, including the final points to bring Bellarmine back within one. McCarthy also scored six of Serra’s eight in the third.
McDonald scored seven of his 12 in the second for the Padres and was a perfect 5-of-5 at the line, the only member of the team to reach the charity stripe at all.
“We’ve got to get easy baskets, get to the free throw line and finish our chances in transition,” said Rapp.
Kruse matched McDonald with 12 for the Bells, but the difference was depth scoring. Stubblefield was limited to seven points, but Despie added nine and Metzger had eight, including seven in the third quarter. Aside from McDonald and McCarthy, no other Padres exceeded six points and the Bells held Henry James scoreless after he scored 12 in the teams’ first meeting.
Around the WCAL
No. 10 Riordan 61, No. 6 Mitty 58
Je’Lani Clark didn’t have his best game on Tuesday, shooting 4-for-13 and committing six turnovers, but he made his final shot to give the Crusaders the win and put Mitty’s playoff hopes in jeopardy. Clark lost the ball with the game tied at 58 but managed to regain it in a scramble with Riley Grigsby and call timeout with 6.2 seconds remaining. Following the timeout, the sophomore launched a running 3-point attempt with time winding down, and he banked it in with 0.4 seconds remaining to give Riordan a second consecutive thrilling win.
The Crusaders committed 21 turnovers but shot 10-for-19 from beyond the arc, while Mitty was just 2-11 from 3-point range. James Chun led all scorers with 16 points and connected on four of his five 3-point attempts while eclipsing the 1,000 career point mark, the 11th player in Riordan history to do so. Mitty got 15 from Grigsby, 13 from Devan Sapp, 12 from Joseph Vaughn and eight off the bench from Hekili Jordan. Riordan outscored the Mitty reserves 20-10, with Mack Yates hitting all three of his shots from the field for eight points of his own.
No. 3 St. Francis 73, No. 10 Sacred Heart Cathedral 62
The Fightin’ Irish opened up an immediate 10-0 lead and led by as much as 16 in the first half over the host Lancers, but foul trouble would doom SHC as St. Francis got to the line throughout the night. E.J. Neal scored 16 points but picked up his fourth foul early in the third, and with the star junior on the bench, things started to fall apart for Sacred Heart Cathedral.
St. Francis erased a 13-point deficit, took the lead in the final minute of the third and went into the fourth with a 56-49 lead after a 30-footer by Oscar Pedraza at the buzzer. In all, the Lancers outscored SHC 25-7 in the third quarter and scored 42 points in the second half. St. Francis went 27-for-32 at the line, led by Logan Johnson’s 10-for-13 performance and Maurice Wilmer’s 8-of-9.
Johnson scored a team-high 18 points and Wilmer added 10. Roy Yuan hit four threes en route to a 14-point night, while Tyler Manoa (10 points) and Anthony Landphere (9) did major damage in the paint for the host Lancers. SHC got 18 points from Bryce Monroe and 10 from Gary Hudson.
No. 4 St. Ignatius 67, No. 13 Valley Christian 53
The visiting Wildcats struggled for three quarters but ratcheted up the defense in the fourth, forcing four straight turnovers early in the quarter to open up a double-digit lead as part of a 23-point quarter to seal the win. Valley Christian got a game-high 22 points from Cameron Fini, but he fouled out early in the fourth.
SI got 16 apiece from Darrion Trammell and Teddy Snyder, plus 10 each from Brandon Beckman, Neal Begovich and Wrenn Robinson. The Wildcats shot just 3-of-19 from 3-point range, but the defensive havoc helped them pull away in the final eight minutes.
Special thanks to Jack Benjamin, Ruben Luna and Mitch Stephens for contributing to this report.
