With Nothing to Gain, No. 2 Morse Loses to Serra

Morse High School Coach Ron Davis figured his team didn’t have anything to gain by winning Friday night’s City Eastern League basketball playoff game against Serra. As a result, the Tigers didn’t do either--win or gain.

Instead, they experimented. And Serra won easily. The showdown between the league co-champions never materialized as Serra ran away with an 81-64 decision in front of a full house of 900 at Hoover High School.

The victory gives the Conquistadors the league’s No. 1 playoff berth and a home-court advantage in the first round of the San Diego Section 3-A playoffs which begin Tuesday. Morse goes as the league’s No. 2 representative and must play on the road.

Davis started his second string--which didn’t account for a point in Wednesday’s 52-50 loss in the regular-season finale--and they played the entire first quarter. By the time the Tigers’ first team entered, Serra led, 22-7.

When it was over, Davis had no second thoughts about his approach.

“The other group (second team) has been playing well in practice,” he said, “They deserved the opportunity. I feel we can’t win CIF with six guys. We need some help from the bench.

“Besides, this game really didn’t mean anything to us. Playing on the road is no big deal. I think we play better on the road.”

Serra opened up a 35-14 advantage in the second quarter, but, once in, Morse’s starters never quit. They crept to within seven points on three occasions, the last time was 67-60 with 2:40 left in the game.

But the outcome was never in doubt. This game never measured up to the first two meetings, the first won by Morse, 69-64, in overtime.

Was Davis satisfied with the outcome?

“Not the first part,” he said. “We got too far behind. But, that’s good for the starters, too. They have to learn how to play when they’re behind. I thought we made a good run at them.”

Serra Coach Tom Williams’ approached the game a bit differently.

“I think the home-court advantage is very important,” he said. “We have a tremendous following and playing at home helps us. Yes, we definitely wanted to win this game. I thought we played an excellent game and thought our kids handled the situation very well.

“When we saw their starting lineup, I told them not to get complacent, that we had to go out there and play our game.”

They did. And almost to perfection. The Conquistadors, who patiently worked for the high-percentage shot most of the time, made their first nine shots from the field and wound up shooting 67% (32 of 48).

Steve Smith led the winners with 24 points, 10 rebounds and a school-record 16 assists. Deven Moran scored 22, Mike Karp had 20 points and 7 rebounds and Anthony Moore scored 13.

Chris Jeter and Lonnie Wade each scored 14 for Morse.

Serra, The Times’ No. 5-ranked team, will take a 21-3 record into the playoffs. No. 2 Morse goes in at 16-6 and a two-game losing streak.