MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — At 6-foot-10 St. Francis High senior basketball player Peter Hewitt has had his fair share of dunks.
On Friday night Hewitt delivered his biggest to date.
Hewitt — a UC Davis signee — delivered home an emphatic dunk off an assist from Logan Johnson with 10.6 seconds left in the game to give the host Lancers a 54-52 victory over visiting Serra in a West Catholic Athletic League game and rematch from last season's Central Coast Section Open Division title game.
“Definitely the biggest one I've ever had,” Hewitt said of his game-winning throw-down. “I was just happy we got it done. What a way to to finish the game. It was a great battle.”
The Lancers got a bit of revenge against the Padres who after losing to St. Francis twice in WCAL play last season defeated the Lancers 40-38 in the CCS Open title game last season on three Jake Killingsworth free throws with .8 seconds left.
Much like in the Open title game, Friday night's battle was another classic, see-saw struggle.
“We learned a lot from this game,” Johnson said. “When we are down we can't get mad at each. We just need to keep going with a positive attitude.”
St. Francis (9-1, 2-0 WCAL) which trailed most of the game, took its biggest lead of the game 52-49 when Noah Stapes hit Curtis Witt for an alley-oop layup to make it 52-49 with 1:42 left.
Less than a minute later Miles Todzo hit a 3-pointer and was fouled on the play to tie the game 52-52 with 59.4 left in the game.
Todzo missed the free throw, keeping the game tied.
On the Lancers final possession Johnson — younger brother of Tyler Johnson who currently plays on the Miami Heat — was able to break down the defense and hit Hewitt for the jam and send an already raucious crowd into pandemonium.
“I saw him driving and I knew if I came in the dunk would be there so I went strong and got it,” said Hewitt who finished with six points and eight rebounds. “It was the exclamation point and best way to end it.”
Witt added another highlight when the senior hit a 3-pointer from half court just before the first half buzzer went off, cutting Serra's lead to 28-26 going into halftime.
Witt came off the bench to score a team-high 14 points and added five rebounds.
“It's alright; at first I was a little skeptical,” Witt said of coming off the bench. “But I found a rhythm and I found my way in what I need to do for my team as a sixth-man.”
Johnson scored 12 points and Giuseppe Benedetti added seven points while going a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line and Noah Stapes added six points.
St. Francis attempted 23 free throws and made 19 of them and Serra attempted four and made three.
“We lost the game at the line," Serra coach Chuck Rapp said. “That was the difference. Do the math. With that kind of discrepancy you have to be perfect.”
Serra (9-3, 1-1) nearly was and wasn't affected by a hostile crowd or the Lancers who on any given night can have a different leading scorer.
The loss was difficult for the Padres, but they've been here before -- namely last season when they finished with the same league record as SF, but the Lancers were awarded the league title due to a 2-0 edge in head-to-head competition.
“I feel we had them the whole game,” said Serra senior guard Lee Jones who scored 15 points and a game-high seven assists. “They couldn't stop us. We just fell a little bit short.”
Jeremiah Testa scored a game-high 18 points in the loss, while Killingsworth scored seven points and added six rebounds.
The Padres will host Archbishop Riordan (6-5, 1-1) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Serra will be coming in very fired up.
“I feel bad for Riordan -- they are playing us next,” Jones said. “It's going to be tough for them.”
