SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – After racking up 6,295 miles on the road, JSerra’s boys basketball team stepped onto its home court Friday for the first time. The Trinity League opener against Servite was part culture war, part show-and-tell.
All told, the Lions showcased their depth and talent to the local fans with an 80-38 victory over Servite behind the play of … well, everybody.
Sure, BJ Davis-Ray scored 23 and Brannon Martinson scored 20, but when the bench was cleared in the final minutes, the third-team dropped a 9-1 run on the Servite starters. The Friars were outdistanced by talent, depth and culture.
“That’s the Trinity League,” explained Servite coach Tony Davis, who is in his third season and is still looking for his first league victory. “We’re trying to build as a program to get to that level. We got to see it first-hand tonight. They’re deep, they’re talented, they have size, they play well together, they’re well coached. They’re deserving of all the accolades they’ve received so far.”
Ranked No. 2 in Orange County, JSerra improved to 15-3 overall, 1-0 in league. No. 18 Servite is 11-4, 0-1.
Certainly, Servite would like to get to where JSerra is. A step forward for the Friars would have been to be competitive, and they were – for awhile. “First quarter and part of the second,” Davis said, “then we got out of whack and made it a little more challenging.”
Five points in quick succession by Bryson Allen pulled Servite to within 12-10 with 2 minutes 24 seconds left in the first quarter, and Hugh Hannan’s 3-pointer at 6:12 of the second made it 20-15. But then came a 7-0 blitz over the next 84 seconds – as part of a 10-0 run – and JSerra was never going to be seriously challenged again.
“We made some defensive stops, and that was the difference,” JSerra coach Keith Wilkinson said.
Servite committed 20 turnovers to JSerra’s 7.
JSerra went three minutes between points in the third quarter and didn’t lose any of its 19-point margin. That’s because Servite was in the process of going 7:42 with only one field goal and one free throw. By the time the Friars’ Jake Schutt hit a 3-pointer with 4:40 remaining in the game, they were down 68-34.
Allen led Servite with 17 points and Schutt had 13. No one else had more than 3. JSerra had 10 players score, six of whom had more than 3 points.
JSerra was coming off an impressive title in the Holiday Classic at Torrey Pines, a national tournament that is a great precursor for the Trinity League, where teams are routinely the best in the region. Though the Lions might have played more talented teams, game nights in league play will find few teams more motivated than Trinity League rivals.
Davis-Ray, a transfer from Texas who has signed with Southern Methodist, had six rebounds and three assists to go with his game-high 23 points. He had to leave the game briefly to tend to a cut he suffered over his right eye.
Martinsen, a skilled 6-foot-7 junior lefty who transferred from Mater Dei and was playing his fourth game since finishing his mandatory sit-out period, had the same line with 20 points. Jarne Eyenga, a member of the Belgian U-18 team who has signed with Charleston, scored 11 with 10 rebounds.
It’s easy to notice that the muscle at JSerra is transfers, though the strength of the team is probably its depth. Transfers are part of the culture of the Trinity League, but not all transfers are headed to Mater Dei these days.
“I think it’s the nature of the Trinity League,” Wilkinson said before pointing toward a herd of former players near the JSserra locker room. “You see all those guys, those are are all four-year guys who won a lot of games, went 25-4 last year. Hayden Bauer, the player of the year, was a four-year guy, and Sebastian Rancik, who’s going to Colorado, is a four-year guy. They made the program really attractive. (Players) saw kids win games, develop, and go on to college. That allowed us to get those transfers. It’s a credit to our previous players, who were local – San Clemente, Ladera Ranch, Aliso Viejo. They’re on college break and they’re here, back in our locker room. That’s the culture we try to build.”
It has certainly made an impact on Davis-Ray, a 6-7 guard who joined the school in August and was immediately welcomed – and not because he was a basketball player, he said: “We know we have something special in the locker room.”
It is something special. And right now, it’s on the court as well as off.
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