Pioneer's boys basketball team experienced those mixed emotions last week when it was eliminated from the CCS Division III playoffs by Burlingame 61-47 in a semifinal game.

"We lost to a very good team," Pioneer coach Joe Berticevich said. "They had no league losses and earlier in the year beat Woodside, who played for the Division I championship. You never like to lose, but overall I was happy with our effort."

Burlingame was led all season by standout senior Drew Shiller, who was able to score from the outside with a deadly long range shot as well as drive the interior to make things happen.

"Our game plan was to make four other guys beat us and not Shiller," Berticevich said. "We did a good job of covering him and they did a good job of finding the open man." Unfortunately for the Mustangs, that open man more times than not connected on the shot and kept Pioneer from pulling off an upset win.

The defensive job of blanketing Shiller fell on the shoulders of the trio of Joe Montelongo, Nolan Maggipinto and Joe Afshar, who responded well to the challenge.

The Mustangs came out strong and let Burlingame know right from the start that it would have a fight on its hands. Pioneer had trouble finding the range on its shots in the opening quarter but hung tough and found itself down only 12-8 after the first eight minutes.

It was the second quarter that eventually proved to be the Mustangs undoing.

The first half of the second quarter went well enough with Mike Kaufmann working in the paint to bang in a couple of buckets as part of his team-high 15 on the night. After Mark Bundlie dropped in a couple of free throws to bring Pioneer to within two with 4 1/2 minutes left, the bottom fell out for the Mustangs. A rash of turnovers opened the door for a 10-3 run by Burlingame to close out the half. By the time the dust had settled and the buzzer went off to signal intermission, Burlingame had extended its lead to 30-19.

"We didn't play a great game in the first half. We didn't shoot well and turned the ball over," Berticevich said. "We needed to score more in the first half and keep it closer than double digits if we were going to have a chance."

Pioneer stayed right with Burlingame throughout the second half, putting up 28 points to 31 by the Panthers, but could never chip into the lead that the Panthers had built.

The outside game of the Mustangs was minimal with Bundlie netting eight points, Montelongo finishing with four and Maggipinto with two. It was the inside game that kept Pioneer breathing down the necks of the Panthers. In addition to Kaufmann's effort, Brent Osborn knocked in 10 points from down low while Robbie Nelson dropped in eight, all in the second half and all underneath the basket.

Although the Mustangs would have liked to advance further, they had a "good season and a good run in the playoffs." They finished at 15-14 overall and 7-5 in the tough Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League, which was good enough for a third-place tie.

"We had a tough preseason schedule and played a handful of teams that were still playing in March in CCS," Berticevich said. "That got us prepared for league and a good postseason run."

"Our guys played with heart, character and passion all season long," added the coach. "It's my job as a coach to get my players to do that and I feel like they did that all year long."