SAN FRANCISCO – Everyone loves a good rivalry, and Serra and St. Ignatius have shared bad blood for decades. And Saturday night was no different.
St. Ignatius fought past the typical roughness of the game and held off Serra to win 59-49 in the annual Beach Game at McCullough Gym.
After a fairly smooth and evenly played first half, which ended with SI leading 29-27, things got chippy in the middle of the third quarter.
A Wildcat fast break saw junior guard Darrion Trammell racing to the basket to score an easy bucket. But Padres’ senior forward Andrew Olson came in strong and shoved Trammell before he could put up a shot. Olson was called for an intentional foul, and both crowds were fired up.
SI coach Rob Marcaletti told his team to “embrace” the rough play from both sides.
“I love it,” Marcaletti said. “There’s been times where other SI teams have maybe been known for not really wanting to push back or fight back. This is a different team, and these guys wanted to embrace that. They love it. When that happened, it just sparked us even more.”
The hostility continued early in the fourth quarter when Serra’s junior center Jack Wilson received a technical foul for shoving SI junior forward Teddy Snyder. Wilson had to take a seat for the rest of the night, as this was Wilson’s fifth foul of the game.
Through all of the conflict, Trammell once again shined brightest for the Wildcats, as he finished with 18 points and shot 50 percent from the field.
“Getting to the basket [worked tonight],” Trammell said. “It seemed like they couldn’t handle what I had for them. I just got to the basket every time.”
Snyder and junior guard Brandon Beckman also were key contributors to the Wildcat attack, scoring eight and 16 points, respectively.
On the defensive side, Snyder and sophomore forward Jaedon Roberts did a stellar job containing Wilson, holding him to just five points.
“My assistant coaches, Ali [Thomas], [Kareem] Guilbeaux, and Jamal [Baugh], put together a great defensive plan, and the guys really stuck to that,” Marcaletti said. “It’s just us sticking to our gameplan.”
As for the Padres, junior guard Henry James led the team with 18 points. However, they struggled with foul trouble and a frustrating inability to take the reigns of the game.
This was St. Ignatius’ first win over Serra since 2012 and its first home win over the Padres since 2011.
“Our guys are just really starting to believe in each other, believe in what we’re trying to do, offensively and defensively,” Marcaletti said. “The crazy thing is we still have so much more room for improvement. We just spent five minutes in there just talking about all the little things we can still address and work on, and guys we’re just nodding their heads, so they acknowledge it too. But any time we beat Serra at home is a good win for us.”
St. Ignatius (15-1, 6-0 WCAL) travels to San Jose to face Bellarmine in a battle of the top dogs in the WCAL. That game tips off at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Serra (8-8, 2-4) hosts Valley Christian on Wednesday night, also tipping off at 6:30 p.m.
