SAN FRANCISCO — Fans that flocked to the Sunset District to fill McCullough Gymnasium for the largest St. Ignatius basketball crowd of the season were greeted with quite the surprise when they saw Serra center Garret Keyhani warming up just three weeks after breaking a bone in his left hand.
Playing with just one functional hand as his left was heavily bandaged, Keyhani came off the bench and scored 13 points in one of the most inspiring efforts ever seen on a basketball court.
The host Wildcats had their own ringer as well. Adrian Di Lena, often called the team’s “Energizer bunny” by head coach Jason Greenfield, returned from his own five-game absence after suffering a fractured thumb. He scored 11 off the bench, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:05 left as fourth-seeded St. Ignatius notched a 50-47 win over the Padres, avenging two prior regular season losses and opening CCS Open Division pool play on a high note.
“I had a lot to unleash tonight, especially against those guys,” said Di Lena, who made all three of his shots from the field and all four of his free throws. “We lost two games to them, and I hadn’t played them yet. It was a lot of fun.”
Fifth-seeded Serra (14-10) claimed both regular season meetings with the Wildcats, beating an SI team missing five of its top seven players on Jan. 4 and claiming a 64-56 Jungle Game victory on Tuesday in a game that both Di Lena and Keyhani missed. Considering that the Padres won Tuesday without the 6-foot-8, Hamilton College-bound Keyhani, the scales seemed to lean heavily in their favor when he returned and scored six quick points to chants of “he’s got one hand,” but the hosts overcame a flurry of early turnovers to stay close and pulled ahead in the final minutes.
“We had to be physical like they did with us at the Jungle Game,” said Sean Quanico, who was tasked with defending Miles Klapper.
Klapper scored 24 when the teams first met and 26 on Tuesday but was held to just seven on Friday night. His uncontested drive to the basket tied the game at 39 with 3:24 left, and Quanico traded baskets with Ryan Pettis before Di Lena put St. Ignatius (19-6) in front for good. Klapper made one of two free throws with 1:54 to go, but John Squire made a pair to give the Wildcats a 46-42 advantage with 1:37 left.
Aidan Carleson scored the last of his 11 points to get the Padres back within two, but Di Lena came up with a clutch steal to set up Ryan Conroy for a transition layup with 30 seconds left. Brady Smith’s 3-pointer with 6.6 remaining kept the Padres alive, but Quanico freed himself from the Serra defense to earn two free throws, making both with 2.9 left, and Squire blocked a last-second heave to finish the game.
“It was a physical game, and that’s our style. Ugly basketball is beautiful to us,” Serra head coach Chuck Rapp said. “Give SI credit, they threw down with us. A game like this comes down to a couple plays and a couple missed opportunities here and there.”
SI held an early 5-0 lead but surrendered the next 10 points as Keyhani entered with 3:10 remaining in the first quarter and scored on a three-point play 38 seconds later. His 3-pointer made it 10-5 before Di Lena scored the last basket of the opening quarter, and the Padres held a 20-17 halftime lead.
“The turnovers hurt us early when it looked like we had a chance to pull away, and at the end it hurt us as well,” Rapp said. “We left a couple of possessions on the table that came back to haunt us.”
Smith’s basket early in the second quarter gave Serra a 14-7 edge, but the Padres mustered just six more points in the remainder of the half. Keyhani’s second and-1 gave them a 30-25 lead with 8.3 left in the third quarter, but Di Lena converted two free throws at the other end with 3.8 left in the quarter, starting a 6-0 run that gave the Wildcats their first lead since the opening minutes. Squire made a pair of free throws to open the fourth, then scored after recovering his own blocked shot to put SI up 31-30 with 7:28 to play.
Smith drew Rory Kenneally’s fourth foul with 7:20 to go, making both free throws to put Serra ahead again, and Kenneally got called for a fifth when preparing for a possible rebound, knocking him out of the game and sending Carleson to the line. The junior made both, putting the fifth-seeded Padres up 34-31.
“Aidan was great. It was good to see him aggressive offensively and attacking the rim,” Rapp said of Carleson, who started in place of Lucas Kramer. “He gives us a different gear when he’s in there.”
The Wildcats drew even at 34 with a Di Lena baseline drive and GC Toledo Rivera free throw, then tied the game at 37 on a Toledo Rivera 3-pointer. All seven of Toledo Rivera’s points came in the second half.
Squire scored 14 and finished with seven rebounds, leading all players in both categories. Klapper, Pettis and Smith each scored seven for the Padres, but Keyhani’s performance was by far the biggest takeaway in the losing effort.
“I was really inspired by his performance,” Rapp said. “He just went out there and gutted it out. I wasn’t sure exactly what we would get, and he responded like a champion.”
With the Open Division going to a pool play format for 2022, the loss doesn’t mean the end of Serra’s CCS Championship hopes despite losing in the opening round for a sixth year in a row. The Padres visit top-seeded Mitty on Monday in a battle of the only two teams to appear in all 10 editions of the Open Division. Mitty beat eighth-seeded Valley Christian, 85-62. Aidan Burke returned from an ankle injury to score a game-high 24 points while Derek Sangster recorded his eighth double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
The Monarchs also got 16 points from Eric Brown off the bench and 10 from Isaiah Cabebe. Valley Christian, appearing in the Open Division for the first time, played without Marcus Washington (ankle). The Warriors got 14 points from sophomore Tzahari Trevino, 12 from Pasha Goodarzi, 10 from Noah Lodewyk and eight from Kenny Harper.
In Pool B, second-seeded Sacred Heart Prep got off to a tremendous start with a 63-43 win over Bellarmine, avenging one of three regular season losses. Emmer Nichols scored 16 points for the Gators, Aidan Braccia scored 13, Sam Norris tallied nine of his 11 in the opening quarter and Jake York dropped in nine off the bench. Brody Pearson led the seventh-ranked Bells with 15.
Third-seeded Riordan pulled away in the second half for a 61-43 win over St. Francis, getting a game-high 24 points from King-Njhsanni Wilhite. Brendan Passanisi added 13, while the Lancers got 11 points from Vince Barringer, 10 from Tim Netane and eight from Isaiah Kerr.
