STATE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Division I Boys Playoff : Morse Is No Problem for Santa Monica, 71-57

Santa Monica High School basketball Coach Cliff Hunter said he considered sidelining two of his top players--Keith Neal and Danny Price--for the Vikings’ Division I Southern Regional playoff game Tuesday night.

Luckly for Santa Monica, Hunter decided to let them play.

Neal scored 16 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, and Price added 15 points and 8 rebounds to pace Santa Monica to a 71-57 victory over San Diego’s Morse High before a crowd of 1,844 at San Diego State.

Santa Monica, which bettered its record to 19-9, advances to the Division I Southern semifinal playoff against top-seeded Fairfax Thursday night at either Santa Monica College or Cal State Dominguez Hills. Morse finished its season at 22-3.

Although Price and Neal were both suffering from the flu before the game, Hunter said he opted to allow them to play.

“I sent them home from school Monday,” Hunter said in a thickly hoarse voice. “I was considering leaving them home, but they placed one heck of a game for us.

“They looked like they were half dead Monday.’

The two were clearly alive Tuesday night, dominating Morse with their driving layups and agile defense.

Hunter said he knew very little about Morse going into the first round of the Southern Regional playoffs.

Santa Monica scored nine straight points to take an 11-2 lead with 4:30 remaining in the opening period. By the end of the period, the Vikings had increased their lead to 17-9.

All of Santa Monica’s points came from inside the key in the first period. In fact, the Vikings controlled the key all night, outrebounding Morse, 28-25.

Morse, as Hunter expected, did not give up. Midway through the second period, the Tigers scored eight unanswered points to cut the Vikings’ lead to 27-21.

Morse couldn’t keep its momentum, allowing Santa Monica to increase its lead to 35-25 by the half.

“After we got off to a great start, the kids got real casual and lost control of their ballhandling,” Hunter said.

By the fourth period, Santa Monica had ensured its victory, scoring 14 straight points to lead, 61-43, with four minutes to play.

Morse’s Marcus Combs led all scorers with 17 points.