HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL FINALS : Division III Boys : Ask Lincoln . . . Even the Winners Are Unhappy Sometimes : Coach Complains, but Hornets Sting Ramona for First Section Title, 71-63

Isn’t the losing coach supposed to complain about the officiating? And isn’t the winner supposed to talk about how well his team played?

That wasn’t the case Friday afternoon. Even though Ramona lost to Lincoln, 71-63, in the boys’ Division III title game, the first thing out of Ramona Coach Al Schaffer’s mouth was: “I feel like a winner.”

Lincoln Coach Ron Loneski’s first words: “We played terrible. The officiating was horrible.”

Loneski’s remarks were especially strange considering it was Lincoln’s first boys’ basketball title since the San Diego Section began in 1961, and that the victory assured Lincoln a berth in the state playoffs. Ramona is left hoping for an at-large berth.

But the circumstances of Lincoln’s victory dictated those emotions.

Ramona came into the game with a record of 14-15. Lincoln, at 23-2, had four more victories than its two playoff opponents--Rancho Buena Vista and Ramona--combined.

But by the middle of the third quarter Friday, it looked as if Ramona’s players started to believe they had a chance to win.

Though his team was trailing, 44-30, Tony Newman, the junior center who many considered too slow to play well against Lincoln’s Roger Johnson, would not give up. He scored on two consecutive possessions, and Ramona trailed by six, 46-40, with 3:22 left in the third quarter.

“I think we scared them when we cut the lead to six,” said Newman, who finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Newman scored again on an offensive rebound in the fourth quarter to make the score 56-54.

Lincoln led, but it wasn’t doing the things Loneski wanted. Johnson had disappeared inside, and guard Carl Gaines, who had scored 17 points by that time, was not getting the ball.

Loneski called a timeout. But Ramona’s Nate Hollingsworth stole the subsequent inbounds pass and made a layup to tie the score at 56-56 with 4:52 to play.

“I thought we could win at that point,” Schaffer said.

That was not how Gaines saw it at all.

“They definitely had the momentum at that point,” said Gaines, who finished with 23 points. “But I knew before the game was over, we’d get a run of six or eight points.”

And they did. Gaines took charge and scored six points down the stretch. Joe Temple stole a pass and scored to give Lincoln a 66-60 lead.

Jason McClenaghan did his best to keep Ramona close by hitting a three-pointer at the 1:55 mark to make it 66-63.

But Gaines scored on a drive, and Johnson, who finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, made a free throw to make it 69-63.

“You can mark this one in the loss column for us,” Schaffer said. “But I don’t feel bad at all. We just have to hope someone (on the state seeding committee) sees that we played the second-best Division III team in Southern California tough.”