Santana Controls Tempo, Division I

Tim Barry, a senior guard from Santana High, was running around hugging anyone within reach, repeating the same phrase: “Three years of hard sweat for just two minutes.”

In those final two minutes, Santana held off a late surge to beat Morse, 67-62, and win the San Diego Section Division I boys’ basketball championship Friday night at the Sports Arena.

It is the first time since 1977 that Santana (25-2) has won a section title. Morse, the defending large school champion, finished 20-6.

Morse outscored Santana, 7-2, in the final 1:45, but Santana’s defense shut down any attempts by the Tigers to hit from three-point range.

The big surprise is how easily Santana took control of the tempo. The Sultans all but shut down Morse’s fast-paced offense by the second period.

“How many times have we won this season, 25?” Barry asked. “And we lost twice. I’ll tell you how many times we controlled the tempo: 25.

“When we gain control of the tempo, nobody can beat us.”

Said Morse Coach Ron Davis: “They did an excellent job against our press and they were able to execute their offense against us. I think they were just a better team.”

Santana broke Morse’s full-court press midway through the first period and left the Tigers struggling throughout.

“In the first half, they had the press on most of the time,” Barry said. “We started rotating our guys into the middle . . . and once we break the press we started to break away.

The key was getting inside against Morse, and that’s exactly what Santana’s Stu Back set out to do. He finished with 15 points, most coming from underneath.

His efforts were helped when Morse forward Marcus Combs received his third foul with 1:34 left in the first half.

“I knew Marcus Combs was in foul trouble, and he was definitely a threat inside,” said Barry, who also scored a fair amount of his 16 points on drives. “I was really scared of him (going into the game) but we knew that we could go inside with him in (foul) trouble like that.”

The third period turned into a match of one-upmanship. In a span of two minutes, Santana hit four three-pointers, including two by guard Matt Panebianco. Morse countered with two of its own during the span.

But Back went on a 7-0 scoring string of his own to provide Santana with a 49-42 lead and held at least a five-point lead from that point on.

It was supposed to be Morse that would be the team that would do the driving. But it was Santana who scored first on the fast break, when Panebianco drove the length of the court and made a twisting layup, cutting Morse’s early lead to 8-7.

But Morse’s famed fast break did emerge in its fanciest form. Willie Davis drove to the center of the key and swung a pass behind his back to Combs underneath for an easy layup midway through the first period, giving Morse a 10-7 lead.

That was one of the few bright moments for the Tigers in the first half. Morse appeared anxious in its shooting and its driving, halting three first-half fast breaks because of traveling penalties.