Santa Cruz finally beats Burlingame

Burlingame, on the other hand, lost in the finals for the third straight season.

"I really thought the pressure would be on them," said Burlingame coach Jeff Dowd. "But we came out tight."

A 3-pointer from Chris Nakiso in the first quarter and jumpers from Drew Shiller and Troy Kalbhenn in the second accounted for all the Panthers' first-half points. Santa Cruz, meanwhile, had a field day against Burlingame's zone defense. The Cardinals scored 25 points in the first half, a majority of them on layups.

With a three starters that go 6 foot 6 inches, 6 foot 7 inches and 6 foot 8 inches, Santa Cruz (32-1) intimidates a lot of teams. Burlingame can now be added to the list. The Panthers attempted only 15 shots in the first half as the Cardinals' height made Burlingame shy away from taking shots. Granted, the Panthers did not get a lot of clean looks at the basket because besides being tall the Cardinals were quicker than they looked, allowing them to recover and get a hand up in the shooter's face.

Shiller, the Panthers' leading scorer, had a hard time breaking free from a sticky Santa Cruz defense. Although he finished with 18 points, he had to work extra hard just to get shots off.

Burlingame (26-5) turned the ball over three straight times to start the game, including a 35-second shot-clock violation. The Panthers turned the ball over 13 times in the first half alone.

"They're big and they got hands on balls and we got rattled," Dowd said. "Our plan was to push it and make them get back (on defense) and try to get layups in transition and if we didn't, pull the ball out and run some clock.

"We played scared in the first half."

Added Burlingame assistant coach Bob Ennis: "We slept walked through the first half."

Burlingame finally woke up in the second half and started playing its game. The Panthers took nearly as many shots in the third quarter (14) as they did in the first half (15).

Down 20 points, Burlingame mounted a little rally late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, outscoring Santa Cruz 10-2 bridging the two periods. A Shiller 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in the third and a Nick Polidoroff layup with seven seconds left got the Panthers within 17. A Troy Kalbhenn jumper and a fast-break layup from Casey Sturman to start the fourth got Burlingame within 13.

Burlingame then got a break when the Cardinals committed their seventh foul of the half, putting the Panthers on the free throw line after every subsequent foul with 6:44 left in the game. It allowed Burlingame to pick up easy points and more importantly, stop the clock.

To add to the Panthers' good fortune, Santa Cruz was in the bonus with 5:52 left. The Panthers did a good job of fouling the Cardinals to stop the clock and make them earn the win at the free throw line.

After a pair of Santa Cruz free throws gave the Cardinals a 56-31 lead with 2:37 left, but a Shiller 3 cut the Panthers' deficit to 46-34.

Santa Cruz responded by making only three of eight free throws while Burlingame got a 3-pointer from Kalbhenn and another from Shiller and suddenly the Panthers were down only nine, 40-49 with 1:41 left.

But Santa Cruz put the game away from the free throw line, hitting 7 of 10 down the stretch.

"We know Santa Cruz is good, but we made them look better," Dowd said.