SAN JOSE, CA — For the first time since the Central Coast Section started an Open Division for basketball three years ago the Mitty basketball team will not be the champions — thanks to Serra.
The No. 2-seeded Padres knocked off the No. 3-seeded Monarchs 55-52 in overtime Tuesday in an Open Division semifinal game at Independence High.
Serra senior guard Jimmy Wohrer finished with a team-high 22 points including scoring seven of Serra’s nine points in overtime.
“I’m a leader on this team so I felt like especially with Trevor Brown out of the game that I had to pick it up a little bit,” said Wohrer. “Try to get my shots and carry us a little bit.”
The Padres were without Brown who fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Brown finished with four points and seven rebounds.
This was the third time that Serra has beaten Mitty this year and after falling to the Monarchs in the two previous Open Division championship games made Tuesday’s victory that much more sweeter for Serra.
“It’s just a great feeling, Mitty has had our number the last few years,” said Wohrer. “This year we just really wanted to make an emphasis on not losing to Mitty. It wasn’t easy; it was a tough battle, they were ready to play and played a great game.”
Serra will face top-seeded St. Francis in the Open Division title game Friday at 8 p.m. at Santa Clara University. St. Francis knocked off No. 4 seed Sacred Heart Prep 64-59 in the other semifinal game.
Mitty came out with a hot start building a 10-2 lead to start the game but Serra kept cutting away at Mitty’s lead.
The Monarchs led the Padres 23-22 going into halftime.
“It’s hard to beat a team three times and this was a good challenge for us,” said Serra coach Chuck Rapp. “They got out to an early lead and jumped on us.”
Serra (21-5) went into the game with a plan of guarding the West Catholic Athletic League player of the Year Ben Kone one-on-one and trying to stop everyone else.
The plan worked as Kone put up game-highs of 27 points and nine rebounds but the rest of the Monarchs combined for 25.
“Kone is great player - he’s going to get his,” said Serra’s Jake Killingsworth. “You can’t shut him down; you can just contain him. We just worked on making sure he doesn’t have a great spot.”
Cameron Korb had 13 points and Nick LaBruna chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds.
It was the senior led backcourt of Wohrer and Frank Lemos that mounted the Padres’ second-half charge.
The duo scored 21 of their combined 31 in the second half and all of the points in overtime. It was a noteworthy effort by Lemos who was just a spot player last season.
With Brown battling foul trouble and Killingsworth missing time in the fourth quarter after getting a bad cut to the forehead, it was Wohrer that wasn’t going to let his team lose.
“He got it going in that second half,” said Killingsworth who scored 11 points. “We kind of talked about it in the huddle to get Jimmy the ball and let him do his thing. He’s a great shooter; he’s proved that over his years and (he just showed) great leadership by knocking down big shots.”
Mitty had a couple of late chances to tie the game in overtime. The Monarchs were down three at 55-52 with 9.5 seconds to go Mitty got two chances to tie the game but both shots went long and when the final seconds expired the Padres dissolved into pandemonium.
“It was a dog fight - two WCAL rivals going hand to hand, man to man and we made one more play than they did,” said Rapp.
Mitty coach Tim Kennedy said that Serra did a good job of keeping it close in the first quarter and not letting the Monarchs build a major lead early proved vital.
“We just couldn’t distance ourselves,” said Kennedy, Serra's all-time leading scorer. “They hit big shot after big shot so you have to hand it to them. But we gave ourselves a chance with the ball at the end of the game but they made plays at the end and we didn’t.”
Not playing in the Open Division title game is something new for the Monarchs after winning the previous two Open titles.
Mitty (16-10) will now host No. 4 seed SHP (23-3) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Open third-place game.
“This loss is going to sting for two reasons,” said Kone. “One we had a lot of unforced turnovers and two it’s a rivalry game. (Serra) is a great team but this is a game we should’ve won. We were playing better and we had a great week of practice but our season is far from over.”