SAN JOSE – James Wohrer and the Serra Padres took a road trip down to the south bay Wednesday evening and overcame host Valley Christian 45-33.
Serra came out of the half strong, quickly extending the lead to eight points from the 19-15 halftime score.
After a 3-pointer from VC’s Elias Haile, Wohrer replied with a three of his own, and the Padres were up 26-18 at the six-minute mark of the third. A three from Bobby Santos and a two from Haile brought the Warriors within three, but a 10-0 run featuring two 3s from Wohrer put Serra up 36-23 with a minute left in the third, a deficit Valley Christian could not overcome.
“We were just struggling executing in the first quarter. Bad passes, we were just being lazy on offense,” said Wohrer. “We really tried to tighten things up, push it on the breaks so they couldn’t tighten their zone, and catch them off guard.”
The Padres did just that, finishing the third quarter with 20 points, more than they scored in the entire first half. Up 39-27, the 12-point lead was more than enough to secure the victory. Wohrer led all his team with 14 points, while Paul Smoot finished second with 10. Serra was consistent from the field as well, posting a shooting percentage of 46 for both halves.
“I think we played well defensively,” said Smoot. “We struggled at times, but for the most part our rotations were good. I thought our ball movement was really key in the second half. We came out, swung the ball, had a couple open threes, banged those.”
“The defensive stops, that’s like our bread and butter. Our defense leads to our offense, and I think that was the key to our win today.”
Valley Christian hung with Serra for the first half, but had trouble capitalizing on Serra’s mistakes and scoring points on the stingy Padre defense that is holding opponents to 42 points per game. The Warriors’ only double-digit scoring quarter was the third, where they put up 12 points. Haile led all scorers with 15 points.
“We stuck to our game plan tonight. We slowed the game down, held them to 19 points at the half, 45 for the game,” said Valley Christian first-year head coach Ryan Cooper. “We were right in the game and rebounded beautifully for being undersized. We switched defenses as much as possible to keep them off balance.”
Foul trouble also plagued the Warriors, with big man Cameron Woodard, who also stars as a defensive tackle on the football team, racking up three fouls in the first half alone.
In spite of the loss, it was an encouraging performance by the Warriors, who surrendered an average of 70 points in two games against Serra last season. Valley Christian has not had a league season of more than two wins in nearly a decade, and with a team full of sophomores, the future is bright for the Warriors.
“Proud of my group for fighting, we got better tonight,” Cooper added.
Moving on from the loss, Valley Christian (5-6, 0-1) travels to San Francisco on Saturday to take on Archbishop Riordan. As for Serra (9-2, 1-0), the Padres stay on the road and face St. Francis, also on Saturday.
“I thought we were stiff and a little stale. This is the second game in a row we haven’t started well, so we have to be able to start better, get a little more offensive cohesion and we have to eliminate the turnovers,” said Serra coach Chuck Rapp about the preparations for Saturday night.
Both games Saturday tip off at 6:30 p.m.
