CCS Open Division: Bench Provides Spark as Riordan Tops Serra
The Crusaders will face Mitty in the championship game for the third time in the last four years.
Needing a spark after his team had been outhustled by Serra for much of Wednesday night’s CCS Open Division game, Riordan head coach Joey Curtin turned to his bench.
He found that spark in Ryder Bush and John Tofi Jr., who keyed a 14-4 run to end the third quarter that sent the Crusaders on their way to a 65-49 victory and their third CCS Open Division Championship Game appearance in four years.
“I have full trust in that second unit at this point of the season. They’ve been playing great,” Curtin said. “I knew that’s what we needed at that point of the game.”
Top-seeded Riordan (23-4) will meet No. 2 Mitty (21-6) on Friday night at 8 p.m. at Santa Clara University’s Leavey Center. It’ll be the third time the Crusaders and Monarchs have squared off in the title game, but the first time they’ll do so at its traditional location. Mitty’s 2021 win was played at the Monarchs’ home gym, and Riordan’s 2022 victory was at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz.
If it weren’t for Bush and Tofi, there’s a chance the Padres would have been the ones heading to the title game for a second straight year. Serra (19-8) knocked off top-seeded Mitty on the road last year in the final game of pool play and led the Crusaders 37-34 in the third quarter on Wednesday night.
That’s when Tofi, who hasn’t scored more than 10 points in a game but has a knack for making winning plays, put back a blocked shot and drew a foul. He sank the ensuing free throw to tie the game with 4:09 left in the third, and Bush hit the go-ahead 3-pointer 19 seconds later off a pass from Dorde Curcic.
Curcic also assisted on an Andrew Hilman three to make it 43-37, and Bush made a pair of enormous plays to close the third quarter. The fourth-seeded Padres trailed 44-41 and were trying to set up the final shot of the period when Bush grabbed a steal and drew a foul. He sank both free throws with 3.4 on the clock, then stole the ensuing inbound pass and scored at the buzzer to put Riordan up seven.
“The whole gym was loud, energetic,” said Bush, who transferred from Priory before his junior year. “I think we just know, when our time comes, you’ve gotta show up.”
Bush and Tofi would both start on most teams, but linger in the shadows on Riordan’s star-studded roster. Both got their opportunity during Wednesday night’s contest, and they made the most of it.
“We were kind of a step slow,” Curtin said of the energy before Bush and Tofi changed the game. “I don’t know if that’s just fatigue or if it’s facing a team three times and getting over that mental hurdle, but it’s why that second group is so important.”
Riordan had beaten Serra twice in the regular season, 65-48 on Jan. 9 and 74-48 on Jan. 30, the Padres’ worst WCAL loss in four years. Serra set out to ensure a repeat wouldn’t happen on Wednesday night, employing an unconventional gameplan.
Beginning late in the first quarter, the Padres tried to slow the Crusaders with a 2-3 zone, something head coach Chuck Rapp hadn’t used in a decade. It largely worked, as Riordan hit just three 3-pointers for the game.
“Last time, they handled us pretty easily, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and hoping for different results, so I thought we had to mix it up and throw a changeup,” Rapp said. “We had the surprise factor going. Riordan is a team that thrives on long runs, so I was just trying to break that up, and for three quarters, we were able to.”
Sacred Heart Prep had zoned the Crusaders on Monday as well, generating similar success.
“That’s what you have to do when you can’t guard in man,” Curtin said. “That’s just a compliment to us, if every team is deviating from their defense and trying to do something they normally don’t do. That’s a testament to how good our man offense is.”
The Padres trailed 15-8 after a turnover-filled first quarter, but Andrew McDowell scored 10 of his 16 points in the second. Serra took the lead for the first time on Ryan Pettis’ turnaround jumper with 2:52 left in the second quarter and went into halftime tied at 28 after McDowell’s floater off the glass at the buzzer.
“Drew was huge. He was attacking the basket and hit some open shots,” Rapp said. “He kinda carried us for that second quarter.”
Pettis scored a game-high 21, including a 3-pointer that gave the visitors a 35-32 advantage with 5:41 left in the third quarter, but the Fordham commit picked up his fourth foul when Hilman drew a charge with 2:10 left in the period.
The foul and free throw differential drew Rapp’s ire throughout the night. Riordan shot 32 free throws to Serra’s 24, and committed 23 fouls to the Padres’ 27. The Crusaders were in the bonus less than two minutes into the third quarter and drew seven fouls before committing their second. Pettis and backcourt partner Alex Naber each finished the night with four fouls, while McDowell and Angelo Ghattas both fouled out.
As the final seconds ticked off, Rapp shouted, “total hose job!” at the referees.
“We got no calls,” he said. “I think this game’s different with a couple calls. To beat a team like Riordan, you’re gonna have to shoot better—we were like 3-of-17 for three—and you’re gonna have to get some calls.”
The Crusaders also had two players foul out as Jasir Rencher and Evansville commit Kaia Berridge each picked up their fifth fouls in the final 70 seconds. By that point, the outcome was in the bag, with Riordan turning the game into a dunk contest.
Serra trailed just 52-45 in the fourth but had a 3-pointer rim out, allowing the Crusaders to break free in transition and open up a nine-point lead on a Sensley putback. Hilman made two free throws with 3:15 left, and his two-hand transition dunk off a Sensley stretch pass made it 58-45 and started a trickle of Serra fans to the exits with 2:29 remaining.
Hilman finished with 15 points and seven rebounds. Sensley, who scored a team-high 18 and led all players with eight rebounds, threw down an alley-oop from Berridge moments later. Eastern Washington commit Jordy McKenzie, who’s endeared himself to the Riordan faithful in his lone year at the school after transferring from Pinole Valley, capped the show off with a one-handed hammer, the exclamation point on a game-sealing 13-2 run.
Riordan became the first team to beat Serra three times in a season since 2021, and the first to do it against a Rapp-led unit since Mitty in 2019. It’s an achievement the Crusaders won’t be able to enjoy for long, as their attention will quickly shift to Friday night’s championship game.
“If you asked me before the season, I would have predicted this,” Curtin said of the looming showdown with the Monarchs. “Here we are. They’re a tough opponent, and we’ve gotta be ready.”
It was a festive day all around at the Crusader Forum, as Riordan’s girls opened the evening with a 75-53 win over St. Francis for the first CCS Open Division victory in program history. Teagan Radcliffe scored a game-high 23 points, including 13 in the first quarter, and pulled down eight rebounds, while Ashanti Dias had 13 points and nine assists.
Mitty 65, St. Ignatius 59
The Mitty Monarchs have hosted the St. Ignatius Wildcats in four consecutive postseasons, and the Monarchs have won all four of those meetings.
Wednesday night’s CCS Open Division meeting, a de facto semifinal, was the closest and best of those four games, with second-seeded Mitty (21-6) closing on a 22-12 run to fight off the third-seeded Wildcats.
St. Ignatius (20-7) took a 45-43 lead when Sebastian Fisher scored at the third quarter buzzer and went up by four on Theo Lamb’s putback to start the fourth, but the Monarchs scored the next 12, tying the game on a Gavin Ripp layup with 6:14 left and taking the lead for good on Nathan Noronha’s 3-pointer with 5:53 to go.
Caeden Hutcherson, who transferred from SI to Mitty after his freshman year, scored a game-high 23 points, including a 3-pointer with 5:01 left that put the hosts up 55-49. Hutcherson has slid into the starting lineup in place of Grayson Jalal, who scored his only two points from the field off a feed from Ripp with 3:50 left after the Wildcats had cut the lead to one on a Steele Labagh 3-pointer.
Labagh sank five threes on the night and led the Wildcats with 17 points. His last came with 2:37 to go, cutting the lead to 59-57 after UC Riverside commit Tyler Jones had scored for Mitty on a tough off-balance stepback from the elbow. Jones and Ripp, a San Diego commit, each finished with 13 points.
Raymond Whitley scored 16 for SI, including a steal and layup with 57 seconds left to cut the lead to two. But the Wildcats hastily fouled after his basket, and Ripp made two free throws with 52 seconds left to make it a two-possession game, and the visitors never scored again.
The Monarchs, who will appear in their eighth CCS Open Division Championship Game, also got nine points and six rebounds from Noronha. Lamb finished with nine points for SI, while Marcus Bast scored eight and distributed a game-high six assists.