Santa Clara Pressed Into Loss : Division IV boys: San Diego Lincoln forces 24 turnovers and prevails, 83-52.

For the Santa Clara High boys’ basketball team, a surprisingly good season ended on a dismal note Thursday night.

Unable to handle the defensive pressure applied by San Diego Lincoln, the Saints rarely got the ball to their best player, Damian Cantrell, committed 24 turnovers, and fell apart in the second half of an 83-52 loss in the semifinals of the Southern Regional Division IV State playoffs.

“It was a good season overall because nobody expected us to get this far,” said Santa Clara Coach Lou Cvijanovich, whose team finished 20-9. “But, obviously, it wasn’t a very good ending.”

Lincoln (23-7) had a lot to do with that. The Hornets, aptly named because they really did swarm on defense, took Santa Clara out of its patient offensive sets, forced an up-tempo style, and then blew the game open with a 26-4 run to start the third quarter.

The Hornets played so well they even surprised themselves.

“We thought for sure it was going to be a slowdown type of game,” said Lincoln’s 6-foot-8 center Mark Sanford, who scored 24 points. “But the way we were able to press them and get into our running game turned it into a fast-paced style.”

Santa Clara couldn’t keep up.

The Saints actually started well with Cantrell hitting a three-point basket and a layup to help build a 7-0 lead. But by the end of the first quarter, Lincoln had forced eight turnovers and pulled ahead, 21-14.

By that point, Cantrell probably felt like a star wide receiver whose quarterback keeps getting sacked. After he scored 37 points in each of the past two games, Cantrell hardly figured in the offense Thursday because his teammates couldn’t control the ball long enough to get it to him.

Cantrell finished with 16 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

“Our guards simply did not do their job,” Cvijanovich said. “We were trying to get into what we do best, but we couldn’t do it. Lincoln has a lot of tremendous athletes.”

Nevertheless, because it battled the taller Hornets to a standstill on the boards, Santa Clara trailed by only seven, 34-27, at halftime.

Lincoln, with its pressure, turned the third quarter into a track meet, racing from end to end for layups while the Saints gasped for air.

At one point, Louis Johnson scored breakaway layups on three consecutive possessions, and Sanford ended the spurt with two consecutive uncontested dunks.

More than two minutes remained in the third quarter, and Lincoln’s lead had grown to 60-31.

“We wanted the blowout,” Sanford said. “We want the teams we’re going to be playing later to be taking note that we’re a team to be reckoned with.”

Next up for Lincoln, in the Southern Region Division IV finals, is top-seeded Verbum Dei, which beat Santa Clara by only six last weekend in the Southern Section 4-A championship game.

“Lincoln’s awfully good,” Cvijanovich said. “They’ve always had a lot of good athletes, but now they have size and poise as well. We simply couldn’t handle them.”