SAN MATEO, Calif. — The many ups and downs that marked Friday night’s game between the Serra Padres and Mitty Monarchs will largely be ignored because of how the contest ended.
With 4.2 seconds left on the clock, trailing by one, the Padres inbounded to Antonio Abeyta, who swept his way across the floor and released a bid at a game-winning layup just before the buzzer. As the final horn sounded, Mitty’s Mikey Mitchell swatted the ball, which likely would have fallen well short of the rim, against the backboard.
“It was just natural instinct,” Mitchell said. “I wasn’t really thinking in the moment.”
The following moments could have lasted a year, or they could have happened in the blink of an eye. Players crowded around the officials while coaches and fans alike threw their hands up in confusion. After about 20 seconds, the referees left the court. That was it. Mitty won, 46-45.
“We can’t leave it in the referees’ hands,” said Serra’s acting head coach, Brian Carson, after watching a video of the final play and concluding that goaltending should have been called. “That’s all I have to say.”
The strange ending, with Mitchell going for the block and risking a goaltending call that would have cost the Monarchs the game on a shot that probably would have missed anyway, left fans filing out of the gym in a state of confusion and frustration, transfixed by the final play while forgetting everything that had transpired over the four quarters to set up that final play. Aside from an early 6-0 Serra lead on a pair of Abeyta threes, the visitors held the advantage almost the entire way, only to surrender it back to the fourth-ranked Padres with three minutes left on an Abeyta and-1, followed by a Julius Alcantara transition lay-in to make it 45-44 in favor of Serra.
To make matters worse for the Monarchs, they’d turn it over on the next possession, but Abeyta would miss a three-pointer that would have put Serra (13-4, 4-2 WCAL) up four. Owen Browne came down the baseline, scored amidst heavy contact and drew the foul to boot, putting the visitors on top once again with 1:35 remaining, 46-45.
He’d miss the following free throw, setting the tone for an erratic but captivating finish. Mason Ryan grabbed the offensive rebound, but Mitty (14-3, 4-2) wouldn’t be able to cash in on the added chance, with Marcus Greene getting off a quality look from the free throw line as the shot clock wound down, one of the countless shots that looked good out of a shooter’s hand before eventually rimming out. The Padres came back down the floor out of a timeout and went to their hot hand, Abeyta, but he pulled up from 25 feet and airballed a 3-pointer with 39.7 left.
Still, the Padres would get two more chances. Mitty turned it over at midcourt, and Abeyta got off one of his signature pull-up jumpers in the lane with time winding down but missed. Mitchell grabbed the rebound with 4.9 left, but the usually excellent shooter, mired in what he called “easily the worst game of (his) life,” missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Alcantara grabbed the rebound, and after a timeout with 4.2 on the clock, the Padres had one last chance.
Anyone familiar with WCAL basketball would be no stranger to the following sequence, as Abeyta swept around the defense to take the inbound pass, just as Parker McDonald had done to set up his memorable buzzer beater to win the Jungle Game against St. Ignatius in 2017. Instead of heaving up an improbable off-balance 3-pointer like McDonald did, Abeyta cut to the inside, and though his shot likely would have missed, Mitchell’s effort for a game-winning block laid the stage for a controversial ending that will last long beyond the confines of one close Friday night game.
“I just tried to get the ball down the court and get all the way down for a layup,” Abeyta said. “Controversial call; I can’t really do anything about it.”
For nearly three quarters, such an ending seemed out of the question as the third-ranked Monarchs were firmly in control. A pair of Greene 3-pointers and four Ryan assists fueled a 14-0 run after Serra had gotten the first six points on Abeyta threes, and Mitty went into the half up 26-17 as the Monarchs seemed to have an answer for any Serra push, including Mitchell’s lone three as part of a 6-0 run to answer a Dimitri Koutsogeorgas 3-pointer.
Coming out of the break, the Padres finally started to create sustained momentum, with an Abeyta 3-pointer off a Muti Shuman offensive rebound and a Ryan Wilson three cutting the lead to 35-31, the capper on a 10-2 run. Abeyta would wrap things up with the final five points of the quarter, including a three off a Luke Bidinost assist to send the hosts into the fourth down just two, 38-36.
“We started being more aggressive,” Abeyta said of Serra’s second-half offense, with 19 points in the third quarter after scoring just 17 across the first two. “In the first half, we were kind of hesitant with our outside shots.”
Still, the Monarchs weren’t going to give up the lead without a fight. A rare technical foul on Mitty head coach Tim Kennedy gave Abeyta two free throws with a chance to tie the game, but he missed both, and the Monarchs made Serra pay for the misses with a Mason Ryan bucket off a turnover and a pair of Browne free throws. The hosts would answer back as Koutsogeorgas sliced through the lane and Jevon Jesus added a putback, but a crafty inbound play drawn up by Kennedy and his staff gave Mitty a 44-40 lead as Arrish Bhandal got the last of his eight points.
On a night where it seemed even point-blank shots wouldn’t fall, Serra finally got some Jungle magic going as Abeyta gracefully dropped a circus and-1 through the hoop and finished the free throw after the foul before Alcantara gave Serra the lead.
With everything that unfolded in the final minutes, the pretext of the game was completely thrown by the wayside. Mitty did indeed win at Serra for a fourth consecutive year, with the three most recent victories all coming in nail-biting fashion, and Friday’s came without Nigel Burris, who injured his ankle in Tuesday’s loss to Riordan. The Monarchs did struggle to shoot on Friday night, but they largely got the looks they wanted and showed that they can play with smaller lineups, as they did throughout the 2018-19 season.
“We weren’t really huge but we always faced the boards, drove, kick, shared the ball well and we were able to shoot it,” Ryan said after an all-around game in which he had six points, four assists and seven rebounds. “We didn’t shoot well tonight, but most nights we will.”
The ability to succeed with smaller lineups will be critical if Burris is out for more than just a game or two. St. Francis visits Mitty next Tuesday, and in a week, the Monarchs will head to Bellarmine for a shot at avenging a Jan. 10 home loss. To win those games, they’ll likely need more than nine points apiece from Browne and Greene, and they’ll certainly need more than Mitchell’s seven, but the Pepperdine commit admitted he had an off-night. The eight points from Bhandal off the bench were critical, and his presence will be vital in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Serra struggled to get any secondary scoring. Abeyta finished with 19 to lead all scorers and Alcantara ended up with 12, but nobody else managed to add more than five.
“We missed some chippies, missed some layups, missed some wide-open threes,” Carson said. “We were getting wide-open looks. The ball just wasn’t falling.”
The Padres will have a chance to wash the foul taste out of their mouth Tuesday, but it won’t be an easy one as Riordan rolls into town, looking to win at Morton Family Gymnasium for the first time since 2009.
No. 1 Riordan 67, No. 7 St. Francis 59
After letting the host Crusaders get up by 16 late in the second quarter, the St. Francis Lancers got within eight by halftime and never went away, keeping it tight until the final minutes in a 67-59 loss. Bryce Monroe scored a game-high 21 for Riordan (15-2, 6-1), Mor Seck had 11 points and 11 rebounds and Je’Lani Clark scored 10. Harlan Banks led St. Francis (12-5, 4-3) with 18 points, Trevor Leon added 12 and Isaiah Kerr finished with eight.
No. 12 St. Ignatius 80, No. 17 Valley Christian 56
Leading by just five at halftime and nine after three quarters, the St. Ignatius Wildcats outscored Valley Christian 24-9 in the fourth quarter for their first league victory of the season. Underclassmen led the way for St. Ignatius (6-11, 1-6), with sophomore GC Toledo Rivera scoring 24 points, freshman King-Jhsanni Wilhite finishing with 19 and junior center Ethan Jew adding 15. Sophomore Will Hook scored a career-high 17 points, Pawllos Habtom also had 17 and Aleksa Jovanovic added 14 for Valley Christian (8-9, 0-7).
No. 2 Bellarmine 84, No. 10 Sacred Heart Cathedral 50
With sophomore Ray-John Spears out to attend to a family emergency, the Sacred Heart Cathedral Fightin’ Irish couldn’t keep up with the Bellarmine Bells despite trying to push the pace. Bellarmine (15-2, 5-2) overwhelmed the Irish inside, with Ryan Kiachian scoring 25 points while Cole Despie added 10 off the bench. Quinn Denker and Ian Elam rounded out a strong all-around showing for the Bells with nine apiece, while Sacred Heart Cathedral (7-10, 2-5) got 23 from Darnay McPherson and 10 from Kyle Crawford.
