SAN JOSE — The Mitty Monarchs seem to be hitting their stride, and that’s absolutely terrible news for any team standing in their way.
The Bellarmine Bells received the unfortunate news on Wednesday night, and they had a front-row seat to watch the Monarchs dominate the second and fourth quarters en route to a 69-48 victory in the WCAL opener for both teams.
Mitty (3-1, 1-0 WCAL South) outscored the Bells 20-6 in the second quarter, then responded to a pair of quick runs by Bellarmine (2-1, 0-1) in the second half before closing the game out with a 21-9 fourth quarter.
“Mikey Mitchell was on top of his game tonight,” Mitty coach Tim Kennedy said. “Any time they would get back in, he would make a shot or make an assist that kept that separation.”
Mitchell scored 15 points and dished out nine assists, finishing one shy of a double-double as the Monarchs turned nearly every Bellarmine miss into a stretch pass and transition basket. It was Mitchell who scored high off the glass after the Bells had gotten the first four points of the third quarter to cut the lead to 31-27, and his runner early in the fourth answered a basket from Cole Despie to make it 52-41.
When a Ryan Kiachian free throw cut the lead to 56-47 with 5:31 left, Mitchell found Zach Granberry for a three on the wing, kicking off a 13-1 run to close the game.
“We had a combination of missing good shots and taking some shots where we could have found better ones,” Bellarmine head coach Patrick Schneider said. “It just kind of creates this constant attack on the basket, and that opens up shooters outside. Mitchell did a great job hitting some really hard shots, and he found baseline sneak cuts all night.”
Six-foot-6 sophomore wing Derek Sangster turned those cuts into an art form, scoring 15 and grabbing seven rebounds in a breakout performance.
“He’s learning that if he sees the defender’s back, he can cut behind them and Mikey will have the ball in his hands,” Kennedy said.
Sangster combined with Granberry, who scored nine of his 10 in the second half, to give the Monarchs a much larger lineup than the one that won the CCS Open Division Championship last year.
Defensively, Mitty sat in an early 12-1 hole as Bellarmine launched an early 3-point assault, with Cole Despie connecting four times from beyond the arc in the opening quarter as the Bells led 17-11 after a period. Despie scored 17 to lead all scorers, but didn’t make a 3-pointer after the opening five minutes. In fact, the Bells connected just twice from beyond the arc for the entire rest of the game, with both makes coming from junior point guard Theoren Brouillette, who scored 11.
“We were able to switch out to their shooters and contest them,” Kennedy said.
Mitty went in front of the first time on a Mitchell 3-pointer three minutes into the second quarter and answered a Brouillette three by closing the first half on a 9-0 run, with Mitchell draining one of his two stepback threes on the night and delivering an assist to Sangster just before the buzzer.
After Bellarmine closed to within four early in the third, the Monarchs rattled off a 17-6 run, with junior Aidan Burke scoring half of his points for the night on a pair of threes. Sangster also connected from downtown during that stretch and capped off the run with a layup off a Burke offensive rebound and a slick pass in the lane by Arrish Bhandal. Josh Wolf-Bloom and Julian Dallas closed the quarter with a pair of and-1s to make it 48-39, but the Bells would never get any closer the rest of the way.
Kiachian and Brouillette each finished with 11 for the Bells. The teams will reconvene on Friday at Bellarmine to round out the home-and-home.
St. Francis 50, Valley Christian 43
Brylan Lundy scored 14 points to lead St. Francis (2-1, 1-1 WCAL South) as the Lancers hit their free throws down the stretch to close out a tight home win. Kainoa Mayo scored a game-high 16 and Will Hook added nine for Valley Christian (1-1, 0-1), while the Lancers got 13 from Nick Weitzel and 10 from Vince Barringer.
Serra 63, Riordan 55
Chris Garcia scored a team-high 21, all on 3-pointers, as Serra (3-2, 1-0 WCAL North) opened up an early 26-4 lead and held on late to fight off the shorthanded Crusaders. The Padres also got 12 points from Miles Klapper and 10 from Brady Smith, while freshman Zion Sensley scored 22 for Riordan (2-2, 0-1). Mor Seck scored a career-high 20 for the Crusaders, who played without King-Jhsanni Wilhite and Robert Vaihola for a second consecutive game.
St. Ignatius 55, Sacred Heart Cathedral 47
Sean Quanico scored a team-high 20 as St. Ignatius (4-2, 1-0 WCAL North) completed a three-sport sweep of the Bruce-Mahoney series. Sacred Heart Cathedral (1-2, 0-1) got a game-high 22 from Tre McPherson, 18 from Ray-John Jackson and 10 from Jerry Mixon, while Ethan Jew added 12 and GC Toledo Rivera pitched in 10 for the Wildcats.
