Spirited Servite Sails Past Sickly Dos Pueblos in Final

When Servite Coach Richard Smith first saw Dos Pueblos High School’s starting lineup Saturday morning, he knew something was wrong.

Chris Gaines, the Chargers’ leading scorer, wasn’t listed on the sheet. He was suffering from food poisoning after eating pizza Friday night.

“I didn’t tell my players about it until just before the start of the game,” said Smith, the Friars’ first-year coach. “This happened in a game against Bishop Amat earlier this season, where (Amat’s) best player wasn’t playing. We came out flat that game and I didn’t want that to happen again.”

It didn’t.

Servite built an eight-point lead in the first half and cruised to a 46-29 victory over Dos Pueblos in the Southern California Regional Division III boys’ basketball final at the Sports Arena.

The Friars (20-11), who will be making their first appearance in the state tournament, will play Northern California champion Hayward Mt. Eden in the state championship game at 11:15 a.m. Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum.

The loss ended a seven-game winning streak for Dos Pueblos (18-14), which had five players, including four starters, suffering from food poisoning.

Gaines, the Chargers’ starting center who is averaging 20 points a game, was hit hardest. He spent the first half in the locker room and didn’t enter the game until 6:24 of the third quarter when Servite had a 24-11 lead.

Dos Pueblos Coach Eric Burkhardt said the food poisoning took its toll on his players. Starters Tom Carr, Adam Estabrook and Ken Ardouin also were suffering from food poisoning.

“As a team, we were a little lethargic,” Burkhardt said. “Servite played a great game. I hope they go on to win state. They played their game. They pounded the ball inside.”

The Friars fed the ball to center Steve Marusich, who scored seven of his nine points in the first half and had six rebounds. Forward Adam Anderson had eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Without Gaines, the Chargers made only four of 19 shots and three of nine free throws in the first half. Servite led, 19-11, at halftime.

Gaines, the Chargers’ tallest player at 6-feet-6, finished with seven points on three-of-12 shooting from the field.

The Chargers missed more than Gaines’ scoring, however.

They missed his rebounding and Dos Pueblos was out-rebounded, 49-25. And they also missed his leadership. Two weeks ago, Gaines made an 18-foot shot with two seconds left to give Dos Pueblos a 39-38 victory over Corona del Mar in the Southern Section 3-A championship game.

“We didn’t know what to expect without Chris,” said Ardouin, a guard. “It was an off-game for us.”

But Gaines’ appearance in the third quarter sparked a Dos Pueblos comeback.

The Chargers outscored Servite, 8-0, to cut the deficit to 24-19 with 2:18 left in the third quarter.

Servite led, 29-21, at the start of the fourth quarter, but a layup by Gaines with 7:42 left cut the lead to six. “We made a good run at Servite, but they responded,” Burkhardt said.

Servite guard Jamie Rosenkranz was the first to respond. He hit a 15-footer and added a three-pointer to start a 13-3 run that sealed the victory. He scored nine of his game-high 15 points in the fourth quarter.

“We were in our spread offense and (Rosenkranz) happened to be open,” Smith said. “It’s not unusual for him to come up with a big shot. He had a three-pointer with two minutes left in our (41-39 semifinal) win over Corona del Mar.”

The victory was the Friars’ seventh in eight games and helped ease memories of an overtime loss to Estancia in the Southern Section 3-AA final at the Bren Center last week.

“Our theme all year was not to quit,” Smith said. “A lot of people never believed we would have made it to the Bren Center. A lot of people didn’t believe we would be where we are now.”