San Diego Section Basketball Playoffs : Oceanside Beats Lincoln, Moves to Semifinals

Oceanside Coach Don Montamble may not have thought he had seen enough of Lincoln before Friday night’s 2-A playoff game, but by the end of the quarterfinal, Lincoln had surely seen enough of the Pirates.

No. 3-ranked Oceanside (19-7) dominated the game en route to a 59-52 victory at No. 8 Lincoln. Oceanside advances to the semifinals against the winner of Saturday’s Christian-Castle Park game.

“Normally I don’t start getting butterflies until about 3 p.m.,” Montamble said. “(This time) I woke up with them.”

Montamble was nervous was because he could not find enough information on Lincoln (16-9), the City Central League champions.

“I hunted, grabbed what I could but I really wasn’t confident that I had got what I needed,” Montamble said.

It turned out to be more than enough as Oceanside opened up a 12-4 lead. The Pirates, who usually have a set offense and a pressing defense, used neither in building 34-19 halftime lead.

Lincoln made 7 of 33 shots (21%) in the first half.

“They never gave us a chance to open it up,” Lincoln Coach Ron Loneski said. “We never got a run on them. They never let us do that.”

Lincoln nearly rallied in the second half, but could never quite get a key basket when needed.

Oceanside guard Junior Seau picked up his fourth foul late in the first quarter with the Pirates leading, 42-29. With Seau on the bench, Lincoln outscored Oceanside, 6-1, to cut the deficit to 43-35.

Seau came back in with 6:30 remaining and Oceanside outscored Lincoln, 7-2, to take a 50-37 lead with 3:48 left. Seau scored seven of his teams next nine points.

With Oceanside leading, 43-35, Seau entered the game and quickly scored a three-point play to give Oceanside a 46-35 lead.

Seau fouled out with 1:41 left and the Pirates leading, 52-43.

Seau led all scorers with 24 points and Paul added 17. Lincoln was led by guard Joe Temple’s 17 points.