Servite’s Big 3rd Quarter Discourages Esperanza

It is still early enough in the basketball season for “firsts.” And Servite and Esperanza experienced a first in their boys’ basketball game Wednesday at Esperanza.

Servite’s 54-50 victory over Esperanza was “the first significant win of the season,” Coach Scott Hamilton said. “We beat [Bellflower] St. John Bosco the other night, but this was big, especially the way we won it.”

The Friars (5-6) won it by reversing a 31-16 halftime deficit and outscoring the Aztecs 25-6 in the third quarter to take a four-point lead. Both teams went back and fourth in the final eight minutes, but Servite was the steadier team on defense and at the free-throw line.

Consequently, Aztec Coach John Cyrus called the defeat “the first bad loss for us this season. The other three losses [to Capistrano Valley, Loara and Ocean View] were to top teams. But in those games we did the right things. Tonight, Servite took us completely out of our fundamentals in the second half.”

The Friars did it by beating the Aztecs badly on the boards (44-22) and using a variety of matchup zones to confuse and discourage Esperanza. After making 10 of 23 field goals in the first half, the Aztecs--whose biggest lead was 31-13 late in the second quarter--made only two of 16 shots from the field in the second half.

They stayed close with accurate free-throw shooting (21 of 26), and at one point reclaimed the lead, 47-44, on free throws by center Lloyd Walls.

But Tim Shea gave Servite the lead for good on a layup with 1 minute 45 seconds to play. Billy Hamilton’s jumper with 44 seconds left pushed the Friars lead to 50-47, and Servite was able to hang on.

“Right now my gut is wrenched,” Cyrus said. “You can live with losing to better talent, but you never want to see your team outhustled. But I didn’t see fire and desire from us in the second half.”

Coach Hamilton said he didn’t do any ranting in the locker room at halftime, even though Servite had made only five of 20 shots and was looking flat.

“All I did was challenge the seniors to step it up,” Hamilton said.

Two in particular--guard Billy Hamilton (13 points, 11 assists) and forward Evan Friedl (16 points)--were listening. Hamilton said they were the key to the Friars’ comeback, as well as forward Ted Ranzan, who scored eight of his 10 points in the third quarter.

Servite will take two consecutive victories and some momentum into the Marin Catholic Holiday Tournament.

Esperanza will take two straight defeats and several questions into the Orange tournament on Saturday.

“Basketball is a team game, not a game of individuals,” Cyrus said. “We were too individualistic tonight.”