Section champion Serra too much for California
COAL CENTER – California dropped a Class 2A Section 2 boys basketball showdown to first-place Serra Catholic Tuesday night, 77-61, and it clinched the section championship for the Eagles.
“We were flat, and I don’t know what it is,” said California coach Aaron Balla. “All I can contribute to it is that some of the kids were scared because (Serra) was undefeated (in the section), but I hope I am wrong.”
Serra used its size advantage to stymie California and it took the Trojans out of its offensive flow for most of the game.
“They are a force,” said Balla. “Their size alone, with their discipline and coaching, we knew we couldn’t win the battle of the size and we failed to do the little things.”
Malik Ramsey scored the first basket of the game to give the Trojans (11-5, 6-4) a 2-0 lead, but Serra (14-3, 10-0) went on a 13-0 run with Jimmy Moon, a 6-9 senior, scoring seven of the points and the Trojans never led again.
California countered with a 10-2 run behind seven points by Ramsey to trim Serra’s lead to 15-12, but the Eagles closed out the quarter with an 18-12 lead.
It was all Serra in the second quarter.
The Eagles played stifling defense in the first, but it suffocated the Trojans into six second-quarter turnovers and outscored the hosts 21-4 to take a 39-16 lead into halftime. Up 29-16, the Eagles closed the quarter on a 10-0 run to put the game away.
California outscored Serra in both the third quarter (20-19) and in the fourth (25-19) but it was far too late.
Ramsey led all scorers with a game-high 28 points, 10 coming in the fourth quarter as Serra freely subbed. California’s Cochise Ryan finished with 14 points.
Moon led Serra with 28 points, Khalil Smith added 17, Bernard Lawson scored 13 and Jayden Bristol had 11.
“One thing we always reciprocate is that we take what we can learn from games and move on,” Balla said. “It was frustrating that we go over the game plan and it isn’t executed, but we will move on and we can’t lose site of the fact that we can learn from this.”
The Trojans are back in action Friday at Brentwood in a section game.