Miller takes over as Sacred Heart Cathedral wins CCS Open Division boys championship

SANTA CLARA — RL Miller picked a fine time to have a career game.

Miller, better known as a football standout who will play at Fresno State in the fall, displayed his hoops aptitude Friday. He scored a career-high 24 points to lead Sacred Heart Cathedral to a 64-59 victory over Serra in the Central Coast Section Open Division championship game at Santa Clara University,

“One of the best athletes I’ve seen at the high school level,” SHC coach Caesar Smith said. “He’s a great teammate. He plays hard. Pull out a chess board, he tries to beat you. Play video games, he tries to beat you. He’s a kid I love to be around.”

Serra (17-11) came out strong at the start of the third quarter with an 8-2 burst to erase SHC’s 28-25 halftime lead. That’s when Miller really got it going, scoring four consecutive baskets on a fastbreak layup, an open-court dunk, a lob and after an offensive rebound. That last basket of his ignited a 19-6 run as SHC opened an 11-point lead at 55-44.

His 24 points came on 10 of 15 shooting and he also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Three other players scored in double figures for the Fightin’ Irish: Michael Manfreda scored 14, Jerry Mixon Jr. (another Division I football recruit headed to Oregon) had 12 and Fedrick Pernell scored 10.

Serra, which finished the West Catholic Athletic League season at 7-7, in a three-way tie for third place with SHC and St. Ignatius, was coming off a great shooting performance in an upset win over No. 1 seed Mitty. The shots weren’t dropping for the Padres on this occasion though, as they went 6 of 22 from 3-point range.

“We just couldn’t put the ball in the basket,” Serra coach Chuck Rapp said. “We were coming off a real strong shooting night and that always makes me nervous.”

The Padres also had a tough matchup with SHC’s athleticism.

“They’re stronger and faster than us in a lot of spots,” Rapp said. “Against a team that’s stronger and faster we’ve got to make shots. But we got to Santa Clara University. That was one of our goals at the start of the year. We just came up a little short.”

Aidan Carleson led Serra with 18 points. Seamus Gilmartin played an outstanding game down low, finishing with 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Like Serra, Sacred Heart Cathedral (16-12) came together late in the season, winning seven of its last nine games and earning a No. 7 seed in the Open Division playoffs. Beating No. 2 Riordan in an Open Division opener, a team it had lost to twice in the regular season, was a big confidence boost.

“It not only gave us confidence that we could pretty much beat anybody, but it brought the team together to believe in each other,” Smith said.

Now both teams will look ahead to the NorCal playoffs. Seedings and matchups will come out on Sunday.

“We’re going to try to get that state title,” Miller said.