Red-Hot Hart Slows Colon, Extends Streak to 11 Victories : Prep basketball: Burroughs’ senior guard, who scored 46 points in the teams’ last meeting, is held to 13 in 76-64 loss.

No “show” this time.

After being scorched for 46 points by Burroughs High guard Gabe Colon two weeks ago, Hart shut down the standout shooter--and most of his teammates--Thursday night in a 76-64 Foothill League win over Burroughs at Hart.

Hart senior forward David Sanders and senior guard Scott Obermeyer took turns playing tenacious man-to-man defense against Colon, limiting the three-point specialist to 13 points. Colon, who made 12 three-point baskets to finish one short of the Southern Section record en route to the school-record 46 points, was successful on only two of eight attempts from behind the arc. He entered the game averaging 18.5 points.

“We just didn’t get him open enough,” Burroughs Coach Art Sullivan said. “In the last game it was a case where he just couldn’t miss, but he also had the room to shoot.

“Hart did a good job of not giving him the room this time.”

Senior forward Mike Merina made room for himself. Merina scored a team-high 24 points and had a game-high 16 rebounds.

However, Merina alone (and he pretty much had to do it that way--alone) was not enough to slow streaking Hart. The league leaders have been on a tear for almost a month. Hart has won 11 consecutive games and sits atop the league standings at 13-5, 6-0 in league play.

“Our man-to-man defense is what has been doing it for us,” Hart first-year Coach Mike May said. “I thought David and Scott did an outstanding job on Colon, who is a super shooter. We talked a lot about what to do against him, and they didn’t give him much room at all.”

Sanders also excelled on offense, scoring 28 points and grabbing six rebounds. He scored 12 points in the first quarter as Hart went on a 14-0 run to take a 21-15 lead heading into the second quarter after Burroughs (6-11, 2-4) had opened the game by scoring the first seven points.

Senior forward Matt Steffe was outstanding as usual. Steffe entered the game with league-leading averages in scoring (22.0) and rebounding (9.6). He had a game-high 30 points with 10 rebounds and five assists.

Steffe had 13 points in the first half as Hart held a 32-29 lead entering the third quarter. The lead grew to 49-40 by the end of three periods as Steffe scored eight in the quarter. His three-point play with seven minutes to play gave Hart its biggest lead, 54-40.

“I thought we did a good job with getting our inside game going,” Sullivan said. “But we had a couple of stretches where we played sloppy. You can’t do that against Hart.”