Two big runs carry Mills over Burlingame

But it was 10 unanswered points from the Vikings that finally gave them some breathing room against a freshman-laden Panthers’ squad.

Despite seeing Burlingame cut the lead to four points midway though the third quarter, Mills stabilized and pulled away for a 33-18 win to improve to 3-0 in PAL South Division play.

“Every basket was big. Every free throw was big,” said Mills head coach Rick Hansen.

This was not one of those games that will be kept for posterity, however. While Burlingame (2-1 PAL South, 6-9 overall) got good looks, the Panthers simply could not make a basket, finishing the game with just seven field goals made

Mills (3-0, 7-8), while shooting a little bit better at 41 percent, didn’t take care of the ball very well, tuning it over eight times, while the Panthers also came up with 11 steals.

“It wasn’t the cleanest game,” Hansen said. “But Mills-Burlingame games are usually hard fought, and at time emotional, games.”

Burlingame, which started three freshman Friday night and has five in the rotation, managed only one basket in the opening eight minutes, shooting 1 for 9 in the quarter.

Mills, however, scored only four points on 2 of 9 shooting.

When Burlingame’s Louis Martineau hit a 3-pointer midway through the second period, it cut the Panthers’ deficit to a point — 6-5.

But then that aforementioned run materialized for the Vikings. Senior guard Aaron Chen used a pull-up floater to get Mills — and himself — going. It was the first of three straight buckets for Chen, as he went on to finish with a game-high 16 points. Chen went on to drain a pair of 3s while Colby Vasquez hit two free throws with 1:38 left in the first half to finally give the Vikings some breathing room as they went into halftime with a 16-5 lead.

“(Chen is a) very accurate shooter,” Hansen said. “He usually gets going pretty quick.”

Despite Mills’ late flurry to end the second quarter, Burlingame was still in the game and the Panthers opened the second half with their best run of the game. Sean Richardson knocked down a 3, followed by a reverse layup from Will Uhrich, which prompted a timeout by Mills.

But Burlingame’s Anthony Sylvestri, who finished with a team-high five points, stole the ensuing inbound pass and went in for a layup and the Panthers were down just four point, 16-12.

Mills responded. Chen brought ohhs and ahhs from the crowd with his slashing baseline scooping layup. But the Vikings’ fans really went nuts when Vasquez used a head and ball fake to the left before going right for a drive up and under the rim for a layup. A couple of fastbreak layups and 3 of 4 free throws and the Vikings held a 26-12 lead going into the fourth period.

Mills was content to run clock in the fourth quarter and still managed to outscore the Panthers in the period, 7-6.

“I thought we had a lot of (good) looks,” said Burlingame head coach Jeff Dowd. “I’m happy with that. We just couldn’t get them to go (down).”