Serra ends reign of rival Montgomery
GARDENA >> Bishop Montgomery and Serra, each looking for its first Del Rey League win of the season, found baskets from the field hard to come by in the fourth quarter of a back-and-forth contest.
The Cavaliers, though, were able to get to the freethrow line, and Chinemerem Anyikwa's 3-pointer with 54 seconds left put Serra in front for good Friday in a 65-56 victory that was the program's first in the headto-head series in nearly 10 full years.
The Cavaliers (12-6, 1-1) snapped a 21-game losing streak to the Knights (97, 0-2), recording their first victory since a 71-70 win on Jan. 22, 2014.
“For our boys to be able to step up and beat Bishop, which we haven't beaten in a long time, it was a good win for us,” Serra coach Bernard McCrumby said.
The Cavaliers did so despite missing five of their first six free throws in the fourth and 6 of 15 overall in the quarter.
A pair of free throws from both Maximo Adams and Elijah Baba gave Serra a 5654 lead with 1:29 to play.
Adams finished with a game-high 23 points.
“We were able to maintain some level of poise and we made the ones when it counted,” McCrumby said.
Knights junior guard Christian Hall answered with a layup to tie the score, setting the stage for Anyikwa, who made two of his three 3-pointers in the quarter and finished with 10 points.
“I want to give praise to God and thank my coaches and my teammates for trusting me,” Anyikwa said. “That's what Serra basketball is all about, trusting your brothers. Baba came off my back screen and he found me for the shot. That's just trust.”
Trailing 59-56, Knights freshman wing Terron Williams' potential game-tying 3-pointer from straightaway was contested by Baba, who officials ruled got a piece of it as the ball came up short and sailed out of bounds.
With 16 seconds to play and just a second remaining on the shot clock, Bishop Montgomery never got an attempt off and Serra iced the game at the foul line.
The teams combined to make just 7 of 24 shots from the field in the final quarter.
Knights coach Doug Mitchell, who has five freshmen among his top eight players, said his team is still learning how to win close games. It was Bishop Montgomery's sixth loss in its last seven games, including four by single digits.
“I thought we had some pretty good defensive possessions and stops,” Mitchell said. “But we didn't get the rebound three times and then we got rebounds and we lost them. So that was five extra possessions and that really hurt us.”
Denis Woods paced Bishop Montgomery with 17 points.
The Knights withstood a torrid start from Adams to lead 31-30 at the half.
Adams had Serra's first nine points after connecting on his first three shots — all 3-pointers.
“Just finding mismatches, coming off screens and having confidence in my shot,” said Adams, a transfer who spent his freshman year at Narbonne.
Trailing 16-11, Bishop Montgomery held Serra scoreless over the final 2:05 of the quarter and pulled even 16-16.
In the second, it was the Knights who came out quickly ignited by Woods, who had nine of his 14 firsthalf points in the quarter.
The Cavs made just one of their first seven shots and committed four turnovers to fall into a 31-20 deficit.