By Richard Paolinelli
MaxPreps.com
Now that the prep football season is finally done with, attention turns to the hardcourts as the preseason action draws to a close.
There was plenty to notice.
The Junipero Serra High School boys basketball team may very well have turned its season around on Friday night with an overtime win over Newark Memorial as the Padres snapped the Cougars four-game win streak with a thrilling 60-54 overtime win.
Serra (4-3) had jumped out to a 15-2 lead with a little over a minute left in the opening quarter and looked to be well on its way to a huge rout in its own gym.
But Newark (5-3) wasn't going to go quietly away and the Cougars literally clawed their way back into the game, trimming the Padres lead to 23-20 by halftime.
Newark took control of the game in the second half pulling out to a 46-37 advantage with four minutes left in the game and it appeared the Cougars had their fifth straight victory in the bag.
But three-pointers by Bobby McCarthy, Phoenix O'Rourke and Matt Christman quickly tied the game with 1:10 to go and Christman would give Serra a 51-49 lead with 15 seconds left with his second trey of the game.
A driving layup with nine seconds left by Chris Jones sent the game into overtime but back-to-back layups by O'Rourke and Stephen Lumpkins all but sealed the win for the Padres.
"We just scrapped all night," said Serra coach Chuck Rapp. "You just have to keep defending and stay in the game."
Rapp felt that Friday's win could propel his team to bigger and better things this year after a .500 start. With three games at the Tim Cole Memorial Tournament this week all that remains in their preseason schedule, Serra will find out where their season is at when it opens West Catholic League play on January 3 at St. Ignatius.
Another road game on January 5, this at St. Francis, will precede the Padres biggest test of the year - a home game against Riordan (7-0), California's No. 6-ranked boys basketball team.
Whether or not Serra's win on Friday is the start of a magical season for the Padres remains to be seen. But Rapp came away happy.
"It was something of a respect game for us," Rapp said. "Now, let's see how far we can take it."
Last week could easily be described as Thriller Week in Central Coast Section action.
The finale of the D.J. Frandsen Memorial Tournament appeared headed for an overtime finish as well.
But Burlingame's Kian Talai stole an inbound pass with four seconds left and quickly dished to Peter Pappageorge, who promptly missed a very contested shot. But Burlingame's Mitchell Edwards swooped in for the offensive rebound and a game-winning putback with 0.5 seconds left to give the Panthers a 67-65 victory over the Bellarmine College team on Friday.
The boys weren't the only teams with the fantastic finishes, with Felesha Adams leading Seaside with 21 points to give Seaside (8-3) a 55-47 victory over Notre Dame on Friday night. Ashley Hayes added 11 points on three, three-pointers and Ashley Washington also tallied 11 points in the win.
The preseason schedule has been relatively quiet for the section's top two schools - State No. 1 Sacred Heart Cathedral (7-0) and State No. 5 Archbishop Mitty (5-1) - but with both teams in the West Catholic League, that is about to change.
The two teams are on a collision course, a January 12 showdown in San Jose at Mitty's gym, that should give the winner the upper hand in the race for this year's league crown.
No matter how teams wrap up the final week of play in 2006, the first few weeks of 2007 should provide plenty of excitement all the way to the state tournament in March.