BOYS BASKETBALL: Hot Start Has Vikes at 4-0

The Score: Mills 54, Prospect 40.

The Star: Mills High senior guard Marcus Chew netted a game-high 12 points, shooting 5-of-8 from the field, while playing pesky defense to help the Vikings advance to the semifinals of the Lynbrook Tournament.

The Turning Point: A strong first half by the Mills defense saw Prospect score only 10 and eight points in the opening quarters, respectively. Mills took an 11-point halftime lead and didn't relinquish that advantage for the remainder of the contest.

The Quote: "It's still early to look at goals. We're still trying to figure out how good we can be. I think it's going to be a good team. We're looking to do well in league and do well in these tournaments and hopefully that all leads up to doing well in the playoffs." -- Mills coach Rick Hanson, on the expectations for his Vikings, who are off to a 4-0 start.

What's Next? Mills advances to face Sobrato in the semifinals of the Lynbrook Tournament today at 6:30 p.m. Sobrato beat James Lick in an earlier first-round game.

The Bottom Line: Mills has big shoes to fill after last season's Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division co-championship. But the Vikings appear to have the right mixture of talent to do so, which could mean crisper wins in the future.

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With a 54-40 victory over Prospect High at the Lynbrook Tournament on Thursday night, the Mills High boys basketball team is off to a 4-0 start.

The Vikings are picking apart opponents, showing a flawless, machine-like cohesiveness that makes this team absolutely invincible.

Not quite.

"By record it's a great start," said Mills coach Rick Hanson. "But I think we're still making mistakes. I think we can do a lot of things better. This is a common occurrence at this time of year.

"We just happen to have a better record, but we're still making early-season mistakes. Teams are supposed to make early-season mistakes though, so I'm not really looking at the record right now. I'm looking at the progress of play."

The Vikings, who tied with Carlmont for the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division title last year, are working to find their basketball legs this season. They will have a tough time finding ways to replicate the production lost by the departures of PAL Bay co-MVP Kyle Wong and first-team all-leaguer Darryl Wong.

Hanson is well aware of how unique those players were, as well as the other graduating members of the 2009-10 team.

"They're not replaceable," said Hanson. "We have some different players in different positions. We're doing things differently. We're trying to cater to the talent in the areas that we have. Certainly we miss the players of last year, but we're not trying to replace any one player with any one player from this team."

Hanson has a talented group of players with the right mix of skills. He has the lengthy, strong center in 6-foot-7 Brandon Berkovatz. Marcus Chew fills the role of the speedy guard that has great defensive awareness and an ability to work as an on-court general. Add in the tenacious rebounding of senior forward Phillip Rognerud, and Mills has all the makings to be as competitive as it was last season.

The Vikings showed flashes of that potential in Thursday's victory. As expected in early-season games, both teams played sloppy at times, committing turnovers on rushed passes or fouling instead of making the right play. For Mills, however, those times were overshadowed by the moments of strong play.

Chew had a stellar night for the Vikings, showing active hands in picking up a couple steals while narrowly missing others. Fellow guard Justin Lew also showed the alert defense that makes Mills' backcourt a breakaway threat at all times

"We have some pretty good guards," said Hanson. "They're good solid players, offensively and defensively. (Chew) was one of those guys who got some playing time when things were on the line last year, so he should be doing things like that."

The key to Mills' tournament-opening victory was its rebounding.

"We had a size advantage," said Hanson. "We were able to get some even shots and I thought we controlled the rebounding better than they did."

The Vikings pulled in 26 rebounds, to Prospect's 13. Rognerud tied Prospect center Mirza Cakaric for the game high with eight boards. In total, nine Mills players finished the night with at least one rebound.

Chew picked up 12 points on a tidy 5-of-8 shooting night, dueling guard Brian Kaewkan, who netted a Prospect-leading 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting. Rognerud chipped in 10 points for Mills and narrowly missed a double-double.

Mills advances to face Sobrato, which beat James Lick, in today's 6:30 p.m. semifinal.

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Mills 54, Prospect 40

M — 17 12 15 10 -- 54

P — 10 8 10 12 -- 40

M: Chew 5 2-4 12, Rognerud 3 3-4 10, Berkovatz 4 1-2 9, Chan 3 0-0 6, Lam 2 0-0 4, Shu 1 2-3 4, Wong 1 1-1 3, Takenaka 1 0-0 2, Lew 1 0-0 2. Totals 22 9-15 54.

P: Kaewkan 5 0-0 11, Sahmanovic 3 3-4 9, Cakaric 3 0-4 6, Mintz 2 0-2 5, Graves 2 0-0 5, R. Telfer 1 0-0 2, Kim 0 2-2 2. Totals 15 5-12 40.

3-point goals: M: Rognerud. P: Kaewkan, Graves.

Records: Mills 4-0. Prospect 0-4.

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Another Patch story on a Lynbrook Tournament opener: