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Published on 03/01/1999 All articles from this issue

St. Francis reaches CCS semis; Mtn. View, Gunn & LA are out

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By Pete Borello / Town Crier Staff Writer

Boys Basketball Playoffs

Other locals exit early

Proving there's strength in numbers, the St. Francis High boys basketball team emptied its bench to whip Salinas 73-36 last Saturday in the Central Coast Section Division II quarterfinals.

The top-seeded Lancers used all 15 of their players - 14 of them by halftime - to dispose of No. 8 Salinas at Piedmont Hills High in San Jose.

"We wore them out," St. Francis coach Steve Filios said of Salinas. "They have a nice team, but they're only six or seven players deep. Our strategy was to utilize our bench, which is deeper, and wear them down with full-court pressure."

The Lancers (20-7) constantly brought in fresh bodies to sustain the pressure, often rotating five players at a time.

Undermanned Salinas (18-12) could only fend this off for so long and wound up committing 24 turnovers.

St. Francis led 15-8 after the first quarter and went up 37-21 at intermission. The second half was all Lancers, as they out-scored a fatigued Salinas team 36-15.

"We really broke it open in the third period," Filios said," and practically all of our players contributed."

By game's end, St. Francis had 13 players in the scoring column. Junior Chase Lyman paced the Lancers with 13 points. Troy Bienemann added 11 points and Adam Buck tallied 10.

The Lancers next play No. 12 Menlo-Atherton (11-15) in a semifinal game set for 8 p.m., tonight at Santa Clara High.

The winner will meet either No. 3 North Salinas (25-2) or No. 2 Piedmont Hills (25-2) for the championship at 8 p.m., Saturday at San Jose State's Event Center.

Mountain View and Gunn highs, meanwhile, were both eliminated in the second round of the CCS Division III playoffs last Thursday.

Mountain View, the No. 9 seed, lost 57-42 at No. 8 Capuchino.

This marks the third year in a row the Spartans (19-8) have failed to get past the first round of the playoffs.

Mountain View started slow against Capuchino, trailing 16-7 after the first quarter and 29-13 at halftime.

Seth Greenstein finished as the Spartans leading scorer with 23 points.

No. 10 Gunn also struggled on offense, falling 60-41 at No. 7 Gunderson.

The Titans, down 26-19 at the half, were out-scored 14-6 in the third quarter and never recovered.

Jamar Barnett was the only player on Gunn (18-6) to score in double figures, tallying 18 points. Anthony Rea added eight points.

The Los Altos High boys basketball team didn't last long in the playoffs, either, losing a first-round game at Carlmont 59-51 Feb. 23.

However, the Eagles did accomplish one important thing.

"We got some playoff experience," coach Bryan Beasley said. "It was a good experience for our younger kids."

Los Altos, the 19th seed in Division III, played No. 14 Carlmont close, staying within six points most of the way.

The Eagles even grabbed a 39-38 lead early in the fourth quarter when Ryan Brown drained a three-pointer. Brown wound up with a team-high 16 points.

The lead was short lived, though, as Carlmont scored on its next possession and never trailed again.

Los Altos trailed 51-49 with 1:50 left and had a chance to at least tie things up. But the Eagles committed a turnover trying to get the ball inside to center Geoff Patterson, and Carlmont scored a layup to put the game away.

Patterson scored 15 points for the Eagles, who finish the season with an 8-17 overall mark.

Check out next week's issue of the Town Crier for more on the CCS boys and girls basketball playoffs.