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Santa Clara Breezes Past Quartz Hill

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

With the precision of a SWAT team, the Santa Clara High basketball team worked on visiting Quartz Hill on Tuesday night.

With coaches and reserves barely nestled in their seats, Santa Clara center Steve Amar banged inside for two points and Santa Clara guard Art Barron hit a rainbow three-point shot.

Quartz Hill wilted under the siege and Santa Clara went on to win its fifth consecutive game, 61-47.

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“They intimidated . . . us in the first half,” Quartz Hill Coach Don Moore said. “Shoot, I hope that’s the best team we face all year.”

It could very well be. Barron scored 22 points (he made seven three-point shots), and Amar added 19 as Santa Clara (8-1) beat the Rebels (7-2) inside and out.

By the end of the first quarter, the Saints held a 23-9 lead and shoved a man-to-man defense down their opponent’s throat, limiting the Rebels to eight-of-26 shooting from the field in the first half.

Barron and Amar combined for 21 of Santa Clara’s 23 first-quarter points. Barron hit three three-point shots in the final two minutes of the first quarter.

“They threaded the needle on us (with their passes) four times in a row,” Moore said of Santa Clara. “They played good team ball. They don’t make mistakes.”

Santa Clara’s biggest lead came with 5 minutes 20 seconds left in the third quarter when Amar’s follow shot after an offensive rebound gave the Saints a 42-20 lead.

“We played an outstanding first half,” Santa Clara Coach Lou Cvijanovich said. “And a more than adequate second half.”

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Quartz Hill might have played a more than adequate game had its best player, Chris Young, not been handcuffed by early foul trouble.

Young, who averages slightly more than 20 points a game, picked up his third foul in the first quarter and played less than two quarters total before fouling out. He finished with 12 points.

To Quartz Hill’s credit, the Rebels outran Santa Clara in the second half, outscoring the Saints, 29-25.

In fact, excluding the first quarter, the teams played to a tie.

Guard Danny Prince led Quartz Hill with 20 points, 14 in the second half.

Moore predicted that his team would not lose in the same manner again this season.

“If we were going to lose, at least we would challenge them physically,” Moore said of the second half.

“But that’s the worst you’ll see of Quartz Hill all year.”

Two-time defending state champion Santa Clara will leave today for a tournament in Arizona.

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