SANTA CLARA, CA — Serra basketball coach Chuck Rapp said he wanted his team to throw the first punch against Half Moon Bay in a Central Coast Section Open Division round quarterfinal game.
The Padres threw a haymaker en route to a 66-29 win against Half Moon Bay.
No. 2-seeded Serra started the game on a 22-0 run against No. 7 seed HMB Friday night at Wilcox High.
“We tried to jump on them early and tonight was beyond my wildest dreams,” Rapp said. “Just good defensive effort and pressure. It led to some easy baskets and it just rolled from there.”
HMB — co-champions of the North Bay Peninsula Division — didn’t get its first points of the game until an Austin Hilton layup with 52 seconds left in the first quarter.
Serra (20-5) forced the Cougars into 10 first-quarter turnovers, which resulted in many easy baskets.
“That’s what we wanted to do,” said Serra’s Jimmy Wohrer. “We wanted to pressure up on defense — that’s what we take our pride in. We thought this was a team we can get after defensively right from the get go.”
HMB settled down some in the second quarter scoring 13 points, but by then the damage was down as the Cougars went into halftime trailing Serra 35-15.
The Padres didn’t make things any easier for HMB in the third quarter, holding the Cougars to just four points.
Serra was able to rest the bulk of its starters in the second half as HMB wasn’t able to get within 18 points.
Jake Killingsworth finished with a game-high 17 points — including four 3-pointers — and six rebounds in just a shade over two quarters of play. Wohrer added 14 points and Trevor Brown added nine points and five rebounds.
In all, 10 Padres scored in the win.
“It was good all around,” said Killingsworth. “It wasn’t just one person - it was a team effort. We knew coming in we would need to pressure and we executed our game plan. They are a good team and we knew if they slowed it down and got in a half-court set like they did a little in the second quarter it would be a whole different game because they have some good bigs.”
Tommy Nuno led HMB with eight points and Jake Salinero finished with six in the loss for the Cougars.
HMB will travel to Salinas on Tuesday for an Open Division consolation game with No. 6 seed Palma at 7 p.m. The Chieftains fell to Mitty 63-55 in another Open Division game.
Serra will face West Catholic Athletic rival Mitty on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Independence High in San Jose.
“We don’t care who we play,” said Wohrer. “We feel like we have a good chance of reaching our goal which is win an Open Division championship.”
