Santa Clara Boxes Ward and Calabasas, 76-54

You don’t coach high school basketball for more than three decades without learning a few tricks. Just look at what Santa Clara Coach Lou Cvijanovich did to Calabasas Friday night in the Frontier League opener for both teams at Santa Clara.

Cvijanovich stuck a defense on the Coyotes’ Steve Ward that held the high-scoring junior to 19 points, his lowest total of the season.

As a result, Santa Clara defeated Calabasas, 76-54, as the Saints’ Fred Santana had a career-high 35 points.

The Saints (8-6) played a defense that Ward has seen before--a box-and-one--but not what Ward had faced earlier when the teams met in the Thousand Oaks tournament.

Calabasas won that game, 65-57, in overtime. The Saints played a straight man-to-man defense that time and Ward scored 32 points.

In the first quarter Friday, the Saints stayed in their regular defense. Ward, who came into the game averaging 28 points, collected 10 in the first quarter.

Then, Cvijanovich made his move, instructing Ray Gonzales to practically play inside Ward’s shirt.

“We set him up for this,” said Cvijanovich, who has won nine Southern Section titles at Santa Clara, including last season’s 2-A crown.

“We wanted to get him into a rhythm in the first quarter, then break it,” the coach said.

In the second quarter, Ward had only two points. In the third, the 6-4 guard had four. The last eight minutes saw him sink only three free throws.

Not only was Ward not scoring, he also wasn’t getting the ball in good shooting position.

He had seven shots in the first quarter and only 14 the rest of the game.

“I started forcing some shots at the end,” Ward said. “Since we’re not too familiar with the box-and-one, we did not play too well against it.

“Gonzales played real good defense against me. I just hope they do the same thing when we play again so I get another chance at him.”

Cvijanovich stayed with the basic defense the first time the teams played because he knew the teams would play twice in league. Why give away a secret in a non-league game, he figured?

“Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t lose the first game on purpose,” he said. “But this game was more important.”

Even though Calabasas won the first game--the first time in the Coyotes’ eight-year history that they had beaten the Saints--Coach Bill Bellatty knew he was in trouble for the rematch.

“I have this queasy feeling in my stomach that we’re going to lose by 20,” he said.

He made the comment Thursday . And his prediction nearly came true.

It didn’t start that way, however, as the Saints led by only four, 22-18, after one quarter.

At the half, the Saints led, 32-26. And entering the final quarter, the Coyotes (8-6) trailed, 50-43.

But in the fourth quarter, the Saints scored the first ten points to put the game away.

Santana, whose previous-high this season had been 20, burned the Coyotes all game with his outside shooting.

He made 15 of 24 from the field and five of his six free throw attempts.

Santana had 23 points in the second half, including 12 in the final quarter.

Jon Perlstein had 21 points to lead Calabasas, while Andy Bock added 14 for the Saints.

CALABASAS--Drezner 8; Marschalk 4; Perlstein 21; Ward 19; Smith 2.

SANTA CLARA--Foncher 8; Jones 11; Bock 14; Santana 35; Gonzales 2; Loperena 3; Zelthoen 3.