By KEVIN WOODWARD Sentinel Staff Writer
SANTA CRUZ UCSC Coach Mark Henry always checks out basketball scores even when his Sea Lions aren't playing. Last weekend, for example, he noticed that Bethany Bible College lost Friday to College of Notre Dame by only 12 points. Saturday, UCSC lost to the same Notre Dame team by 17. Taking those two point spreads into consideration, Henry reasoned his Sea Lions were in for a tough battle Wednesday night when UCSC hosted the Bethany Bruins in a key Bay Area Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game. "I'm predicting it will be a two-point game," said Henry minutes before the tipoff.
As it turned out,. Henry couldn't have been farther off, but then he couldn't complain, either, after the Sea Lions rolled over the Bruins, 91-70.
"I was really scared about this game," said Henry afterward. "Patience is the key to our success and we had it tonight." The Sea Lions kept their patience despite a few distractions, the biggest one being the latest UCSC tempest-in-a-teapot controversy surrounding the new cheerleading squad. Some on the bucolic campus see cheerleaders as a waste of $500 in registration fees, "for miniskirts," to quote the student newspaper. And, in the wake of a page one story Saturday in the San Jose Mercury News on that subject, KSBW-TV of Salinas was on hand Wednesday night with a minicam crew getting action shots of the pep squad in action and interviewing Henry during the halftime intermission. Henry certainly was in a talkative mood at that point. Moments earlier he had read his Sea Lions the riot act in the locker room after UCSC allowed Bethany to pull to within seven points, 42-35, in the final minutes of the first half.
"We had a little talk about that," Henry said. "We should have been up by 16 points instead of seven." The Sea Lions must have heard the message. UCSC hit its first five shots from the field, Bethany missed its first seven, and the Sea Lions sprinted to a 56-42 lead by the 14:24 mark of the second half.
"We lit it up," said Henry. The principal arsonist for the Sea Lions was 5-foot-11 junior guard John Saintignon, who has been one of the nation's top collegiate scorers, with a 29.4 average. Saintignon showed just how fast he can ignite offensively by scoring a quick bucket and seconds later stealing the inbounds pass and laying it in for another score. Saintignon performed that neat little trick twice in the second half, scoring eight of his eventual team-leading 26 points in a combined span of about 10 seconds. Bethany opened the game in a man-to-man defense, with junior defensive specialist Scott Sinner assigned the duty of slowing down Saintignon. The Bruins quickly changed to a 2-3 zone seven minutes into the game after Saintignon scored five times to help give UCSC a 16-13 lead.
"He's going to get his points no matter how you look at it," said Bethany Coach Dewey Short. "One man can't beat you, though." But the Bruins couldn't stop the rest of the Sea Lions, either. Six-foot-8 sophomore center Sandro Meallet was a dominating force inside, scoring 18 points, pulling down eight rebounds and blocking two shots. Dan McLaughlin came off the bench for UCSC and added 16 points and eight rebounds himself, while Bruno Baldini and Lou Rowean scored eight points each. Saintignon, who hit 13 of 22 from the field (seven of nine in the second half), also dished off four assists and made three steals. Freshman Matt Stewart of Bethany led all scorers with 34 points, while Bruins teammate Kevin Kurtz added 14.
The two-time defending BAIAC champion Sea Lions, 6-9 overall, raised their conference record to 3-1. Bethany, 3-14, slips to 2-2 in conference.
