Boys basketball: San Marin struggles in its Bambauer opener

San Marin High team captain Miller Morgan was at a loss to explain his team’s uncharacteristic lopsided 72-57 loss to Central Catholic (Modesto) in the opening round of the Bambauer Holiday basketball tournament Friday afternoon at the Marin Catholic gymnasium.

“I’m not sure why, but we stopped playing,” Morgan said. “We’ve played better against better teams. But we didn’t play with any intensity today and that’s got to end.”

At least the Mustangs (7-4) don’t have long to wait to put the subpar effort in their rearview mirror. San Marin plays in tournament loser bracket action at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

While Morgan was strong at both ends of the floor (18 points, five rebounds and a blocked shot), there was a shortage of strong contributors elsewhere as Grant Means (10 points – all in the first half) was the only other San Marin player in double figures in scoring.

San Marin coach Chris Lavdiotis was left scratching his head in the wake of the Mustangs’ disappointing outing.

“We had a great scouting report and we watched tons of film on this team,” Lavdiotis said. “We knew what we were supposed to do. We just didn’t do any of it.”

For a spell, at least, the Mustangs seemed up to the task.

Back-to-back three-point buckets by Jake Beisler and Kellen Dunning staked the Mustangs to a seven-point lead with three minutes remaining in the opening period.

But even that flurry was short-lived. The Raiders scored the final five points of the quarter and the initial four points of the second stanza to take their first lead at 21-19.

The remainder of the half was nip-and-tuck with neither team leading by more than two points.

But Central Catholic guard Jordan Magana scored on a put-back in the final seconds of the half. The Raiders led 31-30 at intermission and never trailed again.

“We never brought any intensity to this game,” Lavdiotis said. “I kept it short at halftime. We made two adjustments and then didn’t execute either of them.”

That was fairly evident on the court as the Raiders scored the first six points of the second half paving the way for a tide-turning 29-10 run in the third quarter. Central Catholic led 60-40 entering the final eight minutes.

“At some point you have to play defense,” Lavdiotis said. “We gave up 72 points to this team today. Last week we gave up 47, 46 and 42 points to three good teams. We played no defense today.”

Except for a brief flurry to open the fourth period when Jason Gillen came off the bench to score a three-pointer and a pair of free throws, the Mustangs never threatened a comeback.

In fact, at the three-minute mark Central Catholic (7-4) led by 20 points again and simply coasted to victory.