SAN JOSE — With the balanced scoring that Archbishop Mitty had displayed in its first five games, it would be easy to forget that the Monarchs have some lethal weapons at their disposal, rather than just a bunch of interchangeable parts.
One of those weapons exploded on Friday night, destroying everything in its path.
Junior guard Mikey Mitchell, already committed to Pepperdine, scored 20 in the first half as Monarchs rolled to an 85-49 win over Menlo-Atherton on Friday night.
Looking to settle a score from last year and trying to put a blowout loss last Saturday in the rearview mirror, the visiting Bears came out swinging, opening up a 17-10 lead just over five minutes into the game. A Mitchell and-1 off a Mason Ryan rebound helped the hosts find some stability, and Mitty (6-0) would take the lead just moments later off a Ryan steal and layup, followed by a 3-pointer off a stretch pass from Mitchell. The lead grew to 22-17 by the end of the first quarter, and the surge would continue early in the second as Mitchell punctuated the 16-0 run with a steal and dunk to force M-A head coach Mike Molieri to call timeout.
Mitchell would create further nightmares for Menlo-Atherton (3-2) before the half was over, with an and-1 on a coast-to-coast move to open up a 14-point lead. A Nigel Burris putback and threes from Marcus Greene and Jacob Ryan would stretch that advantage all the way to 18 before halftime, going on a 34-9 surge after the Bears’ hot start.
“We had to start getting out to their shooters,” Mitty head coach Tim Kennedy said of the early adjustments. “We were rushing and making things difficult for ourselves, and we weren’t locked in with our switches on defense. Guys were shooting wide-open threes, and they’re a good-shooting team.”
The lead would never be smaller than 17 in the third quarter and stayed above 20 for the entirety of the fourth. Mason Ryan’s and-1 on a putback made it 51-31 and Owen Browne scored eight of his 16 in the third quarter, stretching the lead to 25 with his lone 3-pointer of the night, one of 11 that the Monarchs would hit. Browne and Burris teamed up for a massive alley-oop in the fourth quarter, with the Stuart Hall transfer slamming it home to put the home side up by 31. Even seldom-used Zach Granberry came off the bench and immediately drained a three as Mitty shot 47.8% from beyond the arc and 56.9% overall.
All of that added up to a surprising blowout over a Bears team that returned most of its pieces from a 2018-19 campaign in which they were a questionable foul call away from beating Mitty in the regular season and ended up making a deeper run than the Monarchs in the section playoffs.
“This is not very typical of our teams of the past, and everybody knows it,” Molieri said. “We have no commitment to defense, we’re very undisciplined and we’ve got to manage it internally. It’s very obvious and the play shows. We haven’t given up this many points in my eight years here.”
JD Carson led M-A with nine points while Justin Anderson and Spencer Lin each scored five in the first and eight overall. Mitty, meanwhile, had four players in double figures. In addition to Mitchell’s big first half and Browne’s 16, Burris had 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds while Mason Ryan scored 10.
With an impressive win over Campolindo and a tournament championship at Jesuit’s Father Barry Classic already under their belt, it would be easy for the Monarchs to be confident after Friday night, but hubris doesn’t seem to be an issue for a team returning three starters.
“I think we’re level-headed after last year,” Mitchell said.
Having already put last year’s slow start in the rearview mirror, the next step for Mitty is to try to hang with some of the nation’s best teams in the National Division of the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic, the top bracket of the entire event. Menlo-Atherton, meanwhile, has a quick turnaround with a rivalry game Saturday night at home against Sacred Heart Prep (5-1).
