JSerra’s season not over as Lions prepare for Southern California regional tourney

JSerra’s Alpha Chibambe is introduced before Friday’s CIF playoff game. (Photo: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)

JSerra’s boys basketball players left the floor Friday night disappointed that they weren’t advancing in the CIF Division 1 playoffs.

But Coach Keith Wilkinson remained upbeat after a 67-61 loss to Windward in the semifinals, pointing out that the Lions would be heading to the Southern California Regional playoffs that begin in two weeks.

“Fortunately we get to go on and compete in state, which is another opportunity for us,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said his players had high goals going into the season.

“I would say we fell short of our goals a little bit, our goals were to win a Trinity League championship and a CIF championship and that’s a lofty expectation at a place like JSerra,” Wilkonson said. “We only have a thousand and 250 kids.

“But we want to be the best and we’ve got to take down Mater Dei who is an incredible talent in our league which is hard to do and to win a CIF championship is pretty tough. We fell a little bit short, but again I credit our guys because they’re fantastic.

“We missed (6-11 senior) Francesco Borra, he’s our second best player. It would have been nice to have him tonight in that paint. He tore his ACL in the third game of league, so he’s been out the whole year. If we would have had him, it would have been a little bit different in the paint tonight. But again, I’m very proud of this group.

“We fell a little short of our expectations because we set the bar really high. But now we get a chance to go to state.”

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com