The Gators (4-0) began poking holes in the Vikings' ocean craft from the opening buzzer of Saturday's game, with a high-pressure man-to-man defense, which hindered the Vikings from initiating their offense.

In fact, Paly (2-3) had trouble getting off a good shot and sometimes got off no shot at all.

The Gators defense forced the Vikings into a shot clock violation, along with a five-second count and a ten-second viotation, all in the first half.

That seemed to excite the Gators excitable 1st-year coach Tony Ciardella, whose energetic theatrics make actor Tom Cruise look like an invalid.

At any time, one might expect Ciardella to bellow out, "Show me the money!"

Ciardella, an assistant at SHP last year, has switched coaching positions with father Mike this season. Tony, age 25, has definitely got his players believing in him.

"He gets us pumped up in the locker room," said Gator senior Dane Holderman. who had 11 points. "He gets us thinking that we'll win every game."

"He makes us play hard defensively," said junior guard Miguel Rios, who did a nice blanket job on the Vikes top perimeter shooter, Aaron Wilson, although Wilson led his team with 12 points.

In Paly's defense, they were going without three of their top seven players against the Gators.

Paly coach Pete Diepenbrock looks to have his work cut out for him this year. He sat down outstanding interior player Nik Ajagu before the game when Ajagu arrived late.

Paly sophomore Jon Whetstone, didn't play either, as he has been plagued with nagging back injuries.

Sophomore Kevin Cook has been attempting to get his basketball legs going after a first-round Central Coast Section football game a couple of weeks ago, as has 6-foot-5 Beau Clark.

"I suffered a collapsed lung a few days ago in practice," said Clark, who hustled all over the floor, but could only pet two shots to go down for a total of four points.

"It's a new group this year," said Diepenbrock, who lost two players who could really hit it to graduation -- the high-flying Lucas Danna and the brilliant Dave Persyko. "This team has potential. We should be all right when the league season starts."

One nice story for the Vikings was Tak Abe, who made the all tournament team after sitting on the bench without complaining the past two years.

"I hope to bring a lot of leadership to the team this year," said Abe, whose Viking green-dyed hair prompted taunts from the Gator cheering section, which seemed to be acting like Stanford's Sixth Man Club. "We're just not at full strength yet."

Joining Abe on the all-tournament team was sophomore Gerry Hall.

The Gators, as tournament champs, were given three representatives: Holderman, Brendan Murray and Rolando Ramirez.

Ramirez sat on the bench Saturday in street clothes, sporting a pair of shades. The shades were to hide a cut above the right eye, which needed 13 stitches when Ramirez injured it against Half Moon Bay on Friday.