It had been a long season and the walls were closing in on the Serra girls basketball team.
Down by six points with four minutes left in the CIF Southern California Division I final, Coach McKenzie Hadley made a decision that he hadn’t made all year. He would go with a core of five players the rest of the way.
After a 24-2 run that included an 18-2 swamping in overtime, Serra overcame Ventura.
And now the Cavaliers will play for their second CIF State championship on Friday night in Berkeley.
“We pride ourselves on our conditioning, we pride ourselves on being able to play tremendously hard for long periods of time,” Hadley said. “All year long we’ve preached about our depth and (then) the bench shortened up and I think the five that were out there at the end of the game showed that they have the stamina.”
Serra (23-10), which captured the Division IV title in 2013, will take on McClatchy of Sacramento (26-7), which is making its first state final appearance.
In essence, depth may be one of Serra’s best strengths, but for much of the season, the depth was something the Cavaliers had to wait for. They played much of the season without two of their taller players, Nathanelle Dambo and Lowendie Laporal.
When it was time for a free throw that would send the Ventura game into overtime, Dambo delivered with three seconds left.
And Dambo and Laporal have returned in the nick of time because McClatchy is anchored by 6-foot-2 forwards Gigi Garcia and Destiney Lee.
“If we just play our blue collar defense that we always play, play as a team, make all our free throws and layups because that’s what really got us last time, it doesn’t matter the size,” Serra guard Nautica Morrow said. “With our defense, we can play with anybody. It’ll be challenging.”
Morrow (12.6 points, 9.8 rebounds), junior guard Briana Johnson (13.7 points, 3 assists), junior forward Brijaye Brackett (8.4 points, 7.8 rebounds) and sophomore guard Camille Hailey (8.8 points, 4.4 rebounds) have been the glue for Serra, which was 4-5 at one point this season.
The Cavaliers captured the Del Rey League with a 7-1 record and though they took a couple of thumpings along the way, they learned to just stick with it.
“Seeing how the game is never over has kind of been our battle cry through this whole playoff run,” Hadley said.
Garcia, a junior, leads McClatchy with a 14.5-point scoring average. Sophomore guard/forward Jordan Cruz averages 9.4 points and senior guard Lauren Nubla averages 8.6 points and 4 assists per game.
The Lions have won 16 of their last 17 games, the lone loss in that run coming to St. Mary’s of Stockton (33-1), which takes on Mater Dei in the Open Division final.