Burlingame continues mastery over San Mateo

The host Panthers defeated the Bearcats for the seventh consecutive time, 61-37, keeping sole possession of first-place in the Peninsula Athletic League South Division. Unlike its 44-37 win over Hillsdale on Wednesday, Burlingame (7-0 PAL South, 16-2 overall) made this a runaway early.

The Panthers took a 5-4 lead on Chris Nakiso's 3-pointer in the opening minutes, and were never threatened the rest of the way. San Mateo (2-5, 8-8) center Darryl Robinson tried to keep things close, scoring his team's first six points and totaling 12 of the Bearcats' 18 first half points. However, Burlingame blew the game wide open with a 24-4 third quarter run.

Burlingame controlled the boards, beat the Bearcats to all the loose balls and displayed better overall court sense, converting on three backdoor layups. Four Panthers' finished in double figures, with Drew Shiller scoring 15 points and pumping out six assists. Nakiso finished with 14 points, while T.J. Bonaventura and Nick Polidoroff had 12 each. With Shiller dishing and driving, and another strong performance from the likes of Polidoroff, Nakiso and Bonaventura, the Panthers are 7-0 without their second best player, Troy Kalbhenn, who is slated to return within the next two weeks.

"We had a rough game on Wednesday, so it was important to come out tonight and match San Mateo's intensity from the start," Polidoroff said. "I'm sure if we didn't have a game today, we would've probably done a lot of running in practice (on Thursday). It just shows you can't take anyone lightly."

For the Bearcats, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. They bricked shot after shot in finishing 14 of 53 from the field and 3 of 17 from 3-point range. They committed 19 turnovers, including three times on the fast-break when a layup was imminent. They went Arctic-cold in the second and third quarters, scoring just 12 points during that span.

Trailing 27-18 at halftime, San Mateo didn't score its first points until Stephen Kaizoji's layup with 2:25 left in the third. Meanwhile, Burlingame started the second half on a 14-0 run. Robinson had 15 points, but received little help. San Mateo's next highest point scorer was reserve Chris Chew with six.

"I know our team can play a lot better than that," San Mateo coach Stephen Asp said. "I thought we did a good job on Drew, but overall we didn't defend. We're a better team than the way we're playing right now. I'm baffled. Our last two losses you can both attribute to rebounding. We're not big or fast and we're going to have to find a way to get it done."

Burlingame shot 24 of 59 from the field and 6 of 25 from beyond the arc. Polidoroff grabbed 10 rebounds and Nakiso was 4 of 11 from 3-point range.

"The Hillsdale game was a reality check for us," Nakiso said. "In a rivalry game like this, there's a lot of emotions involved. I grew up with a lot of the San Mateo players and it's nice to come out and beat them. I got something on them."

And so does Burlingame.