SAN MATEO — Trips to Serra are supposed to be nightmarish, with the rims causing problems for visiting shooters all night while the crowd at Morton Family Gymnasium, affectionately known as “The Jungle,” razzes hapless opponents.
Don’t tell that to Kiran Kruse and the Bellarmine Bells, who beat the Padres in their own building for a third straight year, winning Wednesday night’s contest 62-53.
“I love playing at Serra,” Kruse said. “You talk to people around the league and they say, ‘ooh, at Serra, that’s one of the toughest games,’ but I’ve grown up with a lot of these guys, playing basketball with them since elementary school, and I’m glad to have had one of my best games so far this year here.”
A Menlo Park native, Kruse felt right at home, sinking four 3-pointers and scoring a game-high 25 as the Bells never trailed after the opening four minutes and denied Serra (12-4, 4-2 WCAL) any hopes of a late comeback.
Having erased a 12-point deficit a week ago, Patrick Simon’s 3-pointer to close the third and cut the Bellarmine lead to 42-38 certainly raised the second-ranked Padres’ spirits, and the hosts got a stop to open the fourth quarter, but back-to-back steals and layups by Kruse brought the lead to eight. Parker McDonald got one of those points back as he split a pair of free throws, but Kruse’s last 3-pointer made it 49-39, and the Padres would never get closer than seven the rest of the way.
Bellarmine (13-3, 4-2) never quite pulled away, but the visitors were the ones making key shots. Sophomore Ryan Kiachian made it 53-43 after McDonald drove through traffic, and after a Cooper Fitz 3-pointer with 3:02 left, Constantijn Cole squashed any chances of late drama with an and-1.
Kiachian and Cole both played through foul trouble, splitting duties in the post along with forwards Ian Elam and Ryan Troedson. Even seldom-used reserve Scott Nelson played two key minutes in the fourth quarter after Cole and Kiachian had each picked up their fourth fouls.
Part of that foul trouble was caused by 6-9 center Muti Shuman, who transferred to Serra from Woodside Priory over the summer.
“We’re trying to ease him in and find a package for him to get minutes,” said head coach Chuck Rapp. Shuman scored 10 points on the night, including six in the second quarter.
He was one of the few players to provide secondary scoring for Cade Rees, who broke the 20-point barrier for the fourth time in six WCAL games with 21 points. For the third straight game, he went a perfect 8-for-8 at the free throw line, extending his streak to 24 consecutive makes. He hasn’t missed since last Tuesday’s win over Riordan.
“When I was a kid, I’d always go in the driveway and shoot free throws,” said Rees, who missed his junior year with a knee injury but has starred for the Padres as a senior.
As good as he was, Kruse had the better supporting cast on Wednesday. Kiachian, just a sophomore, scored seven, with a dunk off a Kruse assist to open up a 38-30 lead in the third quarter. Quinn Denker was held to eight points and Elam scored just two, a late fastbreak lay-in to make it 58-46, but both played tremendous defense to limit McDonald to just eight after the Serra point guard had averaged 17.8 points per game in his first five WCAL contests.
“There are big baskets than can build to momentum, and we just never got those, and you have to play through that if you want to do something special. That’s where your defense has to kick in, and we couldn’t get one big stop,” Rapp said. “The few we made were tough looks, and we need to get easier shots. We had nine assists and 11 turnovers.”
While the Bells didn’t go on too many big runs of their own, the start of the fourth quarter was huge, as was a 13-6 run early in the second quarter that started when lefty Gio Saso connected for three of his 10 points.
“We did a great job counter-punching and weathered the storm,” said Bellarmine head coach Patrick Schneider.
The Bells now sit tied with Serra, Mitty and St. Ignatius for second place and will host Riordan at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday in a game that will be televised by NorCalSportsTV.com.
No. 1 Riordan 59, No. 3 Mitty 58
Mitty (10-6, 4-2) erased a 14-point third-quarter deficit behind Devan Sapp, who scored a game-high 25 points, but De’Sean Johnson’s putback with 1:12 left proved to be the game-winner as Riordan (12-4, 5-1) took over sole possession of first place in the WCAL. Chimae Ugbaja and Bryce Monroe combined to shoot 3-of-19 from the field for the host Crusaders, but Ugbaja and Justice Turner, who scored 15 points and went 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, played top-notch defense down the stretch, with Ugbaja knocking away a loose ball as time expired. Je’Lani Clark led Riordan with 16 points while Monroe notched seven assists. The Monarchs got 14 points from sophomore Michael Mitchell but shot 8-for-29 from 3-point range.
No. 5 St. Ignatius 76, No. 13 Valley Christian 75 (OT)
Trailing by eight with 90 seconds left, the Wildcats got huge 3-pointers by Neal Begovich and Wrenn Robinson, and Robinson then tied the game with a basket in the lane. Valley Christian (10-6, 1-5) had a chance to win at the end of regulation, but the Warriors’ shot from the lane missed and sent the game to overtime, where Robinson hit the last of his eight 3-pointers. He led all scorers with 35, while Begovich had 17 points and 10 rebounds. St. Ignatius (8-8, 4-2) also got 11 points from Kourosh Kahn-Adle and six from Garrett Cason, who had a game-high 16 rebounds. The Warriors got 22 points from D’Von Lang, 21 from Jay Allen-Tovar, 15 from Skylar Loving-Black and 11 from Isiah Saqui. Valley Christian trailed by five at halftime but used a 21-10 third quarter to take a 56-50 lead into the fourth.
No. 16 St. Francis 61, No. 11 Sacred Heart Cathedral 53
It took two games with Oscar Pedraza and Maurice Wilmer healthy for the Lancers to get their first WCAL win, as St. Francis (9-7, 1-5) displayed impressive depth and balance, with Sebastian Pelayo scoring 16 and Matteo Fontana and Roy Yuan each adding 13. Sacred Heart Cathedral (8-8, 1-5) has lost four in a row and 11 straight WCAL road games, a dubious streak that dates back to 2017. Osin McCormack scored 12 for the Fightin’ Irish and freshman Ray John Jackson added 10.
