Winter Notebook / Sean Waters : Snubbing Tournament Might Cost Santa Clara

In a year that became known for premature exits, Santa Clara’s disappearance from a basketball tournament last week is the Ventura County equivalent of New York Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau retiring in mid-season and Coach Larry Brown leaving Kansas before the defending NCAA champions went on probation.

Three days before New Year’s, Santa Clara left before the conclusion of the South Coast Christmas tournament at Estancia High. In the aftermath of a 39-38 second-round loss to Huntington Beach Edison on Wednesday, Santa Clara Coach Lou Cvijanovich pulled his team from the tournament and the Saints went marching home. Cvijanovich blamed the loss on poor officiating, which he felt favored Edison.

So Cvijanovich, who’s known for roaring like a lion, made like the cartoon character Snagglepuss and exited stage left. . . . better, stage right.

Cvijanovich, however, may have created more bureaucratic paper work by taking his ball home than if he had filed a protest against the referees with the Southern Section office.

Santa Clara broke its contract with the tournament and faces possible sanctions by the Southern Section for failing to appear for its consolation game against Laguna Hills on Thursday.

“I’m disappointed that Lou would do something like this,” Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas said. “He’s one of the top coaches in the section and he knows better than this. (But) he violated a contract by failing to perform and that’s serious.”

Thomas would not comment about the possible penalties until after the Southern Section Executive Committee meets Jan. 14.

Cvijanovich also declined to comment until after the Southern Section makes it ruling.

The background: Santa Clara entered the game 10-0 and was the tournament’s top-seeded team.

Santa Clara had a 21-18 lead at halftime. The Saints extended their lead to 35-22 after the third quarter when Edison made only 2 field goals.

Point of contention: In the game’s final 62 seconds, Santa Clara had a free throw taken away because of a lane violation and was called for an offensive foul. Those calls apparently upset Cvijanovich the most.

According to Edison Coach John Borchert, his team was called for 15 fouls and Santa Clara was whistled for 14.

“I didn’t think the referees called a one-sided game,” said Estancia Coach Tim O’Brien, the tournament director. “They made bad calls both ways. It just became more glaring for Santa Clara because the last 2 were against them.”

Art Santana had an opportunity to give Santa Clara the victory, but missed a desperation shot with 1 second left.

“That brings up an interesting question. If he made that shot, would Santa Clara still not show up for the third game because of poor officiating?” O’Brien asked.

Lou wasn’t alone: Borchert also complained about the officiating and said he thought that the referees never had control of the game.

“Santa Clara was more physical than any other team we’ve played in the six years I’ve been coach here,” Borchert said. “They hit guys on the screens. It became very difficult for the officials to control and they didn’t do a good job.”

Officials Jim Burdette and Marty Groetsch could not be reached for comment.

Borchert, however, was more upset about the abuse he received from spectators.

“We can’t control the referees’ calls,” Borchert said. “We played hard and we didn’t deserve to be bad-mouthed and called cheaters. One fan stuck around for the next night and made comments behind our bench until I put a stop to it.”

Candy bar sales down: “I thought cooler heads would prevail and that Santa Clara would still show up for the game,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien’s optimism cost Estancia some money. The tournament had to refund approximately $250 to would-be spectators when Santa Clara became a no-show. Also, the referees were each paid $40. O’Brien also estimated that snack bar sales were down $100 because the game was scheduled near dinner time.

“The financial loss wasn’t the real concern,” O’Brien said. “It’s something that just added to the equation. The main thing is that Santa Clara didn’t just miss one game but two. They were guaranteed to play four games so we also had to give a forfeit victory to Huntington Beach. I don’t think it was fair to the players that they didn’t get an opportunity to play.”

Laguna Hills played an intrasquad game and junior guard Todd Peterson suffered a sprained ankle.

Silent treatment: Buena shows little or no emotion in the locker room before its basketball games and that sometimes puzzles Coach Glen Hannah.

“It’s hard to figure out what they’re feeling,” Hannah said. “I never know when to try and fire them up. For Ventura, I tried not to say anything because that’s always an emotional game.”

Hannah picked the right course of action as Buena soundly beat Ventura, 98-68, in the final of the Ventura tournament.

It was the eighth meeting between the schools in the tournament final and the first time in 3 years that Buena (7-2) has won.

“Overall, it was our best game of the season,” Hannah said. “We came out aggressively from the start. Everyone played well, especially the bench.”

Buena’s reserves scored 33 points--more than 15 above their collective average.

Another foul job: Ventura College Coach Phil Mathews was surprised at the number of fouls called against his team in the title game of the Delta basketball tournament at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton.

“We had 45 fouls called against us, but I didn’t think we fouled them 45 times,” Mathews said. “We’re an aggressive team, but not that aggressive.”

Ventura committed 23 turnovers in losing to Contra Costa, 122-106, to place second.

Ventura won 2 of 3 tournament games to improve its preseason record to 15-3.

Staff writer Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.