Bast Shines on Senior Night, SI Wins Beach Game
The sixth time was the charm for the Wildcats.
The sixth time was the charm for Marcus Bast and the St. Ignatius Wildcats.
The senior guard scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half and hit the three biggest shots of the night as the Wildcats snapped a five-game losing streak to the Serra Padres, closing out the regular season with a 53-49 Beach Game victory.
“There was a lot of motivation throughout the offseason,” Bast said of ending the losing streak. “Obviously, it’s a big game for us.”
St. Ignatius (18-6, 9-5 WCAL) rode the early energy on Senior Night to a 16-0 lead, fueled by a crowd delighted to see backup Luke Broderick in the starting lineup, then turned to Bast after Serra (17-7, 9-5) rallied to tie the game at 27 midway through the third.
After Ryan Pettis hit three game-tying free throws, Bast scored on the next possession off a Raymond Whitley inbound pass to put the hosts back in front. His and-1 with 3:15 left in the third quarter gave the ‘Cats a 33-29 lead, and his deep 3-pointer with 4:38 remaining in the game put SI up 43-35.
“He changed a lot this summer,” head coach Jason Greenfield said. “Guys tend to make a leap in the offseason, and he just turned into a completely different player. The turnovers started going down, the threes got longer, and now he’s strong enough to finish at the rim.”
When it wasn’t Bast, it was Whitley. The sophomore, who last year missed potential game-winning free throws against the Padres, scored 11 during the initial 16-0 rally, and his three-point play with 4:10 left gave the hosts a 46-37 lead. He also made two free throws with 2:46 left to bring the lead back to nine, and while his teammates struggled on foul shots, he made nine of 13.
“You can see the difference from last year,” Greenfield said when asked about Whitley. “He doesn’t let things take him out of the game, and that’s the most important part. That’s maturity.”
That maturity was on display throughout the entire team when Serra rallied from the early deficit. Though just three seniors were honored before the game, Whitley and Steele Labagh were on the 2022-23 roster as freshmen, while Shawn Boquiren and Vince Crisp were pulled up to the varsity roster at the end of the season.
Crisp’s transition layup with 1:42 left didn’t completely bury the Padres, as he missed the ensuing free throw and the Wildcats went just 3-for-8 at the line in the final 68 seconds, but it made the hill too steep to climb. Longtime Padres head coach Chuck Rapp had to use his final timeout after Sebastian Margate cut the lead to six with on a layup with 18.1 seconds left, and Whitley’s free throw with 15 seconds left made it 53-46. He was unable to stop the clock after a late Andrew McDowell three, allowing the Wildcats to run out the final few seconds.
“You go down 16-0 at the start of the game, it’s gonna be a hard road ahead,” Rapp said. “The balls roll funny for everybody, and it seemed like we were getting no rolls. But that happens, and when that happens, you’ve gotta get stops. Our defense was a little lax there, and it combined for a perfect storm.”
That nightmarish start forced Rapp to use two timeouts, tying his hands in the final minutes. Serra shot an unfathomable 1-for-16 from the field in the first quarter, going scoreless until Margate’s free throw with 1:07 left and only scoring from the field on a Wyatt Von Blanco layup with 48 seconds on the clock. For the game, the Padres shot just 15-for-53 (28.3%), including 13-of-43 (30.2%) on two-pointers as they missed a series of shots in the paint in front of the SI student section in the first half. The only threes they made came from Alex Naber and McDowell inside the final 30 seconds.
“They weren’t falling, and we were trying to attack the basket,” Rapp said. “Sometimes we settle for threes too much.”
It was also, uncoincidentally, one of SI’s best defensive performances of the season. The 49 points allowed by the Wildcats was tied for the third lowest mark for the team in WCAL play, and the only two lower scores were recorded against last place St. Francis. Pettis led Serra with 17, knocking down nine of 13 free throws, while Naber went 6-of-6 at the line but scored just once from the field on a corner three with 30 seconds left that cut the lead to 52-44. Most impressively, SI held Mikey Ballout, who scored 19 when the teams met at Serra on Jan. 23, to just two points.
“Taking away threes is an important part of our defense,” Greenfield said. “He starts perimeter and then takes it to the hole, and we closed out well on the threes and were able to take better penetration.”
Serra mustered just two substantial runs throughout the night. A 13-3 surge centered around a pair of Pettis three-point plays sent the Padres into halftime down just 25-20, and Pettis’ three free throws with 5:02 left in the third capped off the 7-0 run that allowed the visitors to pull even at 27.
“I was proud of our effort,” Rapp said. “We didn’t quit, we kept battling, we made a game of it. But it was just a little too high to overcome.”
Riordan 86, Sacred Heart Cathedral 40
Zion Sensley came one point shy of his career high on his Senior Night, scoring 28 as Riordan (20-4, 14-0 WCAL) became the first team to complete a 14-0 run through WCAL play since the 2017 Bellarmine Bells. The Crusaders also set a league record by scoring 1,013 points across their 14 WCAL games.
Jordy McKenzie also tied his season high with 17 points, Dorde Curcic scored 10 and Ryder Bush added eight. All 12 Crusaders who saw time scored, and Sensley and Jasir Rencher shared high honors with nine rebounds apiece.
Fed Pernell led Sacred Heart Cathedral (11-13, 4-10) with 15 points, raising his career total to 998, and Jonah Goorin added 10.
Bellarmine 48, St. Francis 43
Will Corbett scored a game-high 19 points and sank the go-ahead free throw with 1:47 remaining as Bellarmine (10-14, 5-9 WCAL) fought off a gutsy effort from a St. Francis side playing without a postseason to look forward to.
The Lancers tied the game on Charlie Withers’ free throw with 2:14 to go, but never scored again. Corbett also made two free throws with 27.2 left to make it a three-point game, and after St. Francis (3-21, 1-13) missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer, Nick Corbett’s rebound and outlet pass allowed Julian Gospich to put the game out of reach with a transition layup. Nick, the older of the two brothers, finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Chris Verceles scored 11 to lead the Lancers, who outscored the Bells 14-7 and outrebounded them 9-4 in the second quarter to take a 23-21 halftime lead. St. Francis also got seven points apiece from Withers and Alex Gklaros-Stavropoulos.
Mitty 77, Valley Christian 54
Four different Monarchs reached double figures as Mitty (18-6, 12-2 WCAL) won a 44th consecutive meeting over Valley Christian (10-14, 2-12). The visitors got 13 points apiece from Aaron Biebel, Caeden Hutcherson and Nathan Noronha, 10 from Tyler Jones and eight from Grayson Jalal. Diego Martinez scored 12 to lead the Warriors and Tzahari Trevino scored 10; both were honored before the game as part of Valley Christian’s Senior Night ceremonies.