He didn't blame his defense either, despite watching San Mateo's Chris Brown bury four wide open three pointers in a 3-1/2 minute span in the fourth quarter.

After the Vikings' 57-46 nonleague loss to San Mateo at Palo Alto last night, Diepenbrock wasn't making any excuses except one.

"We just have a problem handling the ball," he said. "Dribbling it. Catching it. That was basically the story."

A story that started - bad and ended worse for the Vikings, who saw their record fall to 4-5 while the Bearcats (1-6) grabbed their first victory. Palo Alto turned the ball over three times during the Bearcats' early 9-0 run which was sparked by intense defensive pressure and some touch shooting from Kevin Maloney, a forward who racked up 8 of his 10 points in the first quarter.

"We knew what we were up against," Diepenbrock said. "They are a really good defensive team."

For the previously winless Bearcats, the quick start was a nice change of pace.

"We've been starting out slow," San Mateo coach Tony Raffetto said. "It helps when you're not down 9-0."

But despite the sluggish beginning, the Vikings answered with six straight points and began to find their offense, pulling to within five at the end of the first quarter.

The Vikings then found some momentum late in the half when, with time running down, sophomore Gerry Hall squeezed a backdoor pass between defenders to a cutting Tak Abe who layed it in to bring the Vikings within seven at the intermission.

Palo Alto then managed to pull within four early in the second hall. But when Bearcat point guard Paul Dajenais, whose annoyingly quick hands and feet on defense gave the Vikings fits the entire night, hit a three pointer late in the third quarter, the Bearcats led by seven and would let the Vikings come no closer.

"Wow. (Dajenais) is a good player," said Viking senior Nik Ajagu, who led all scorers with 22 points last night.

Ajagu tried to break through the Bearcats' smothering defense single-handedly in the fourth quarter, slashing through the lane for 12 of the Vikings' 16 fourth quarter points. The 6-5 forward scored six straight points, capping off his scoring barrage when he swiped a Dajenais pass mid-air, glided the length of the court and flushed a two-handed dunk to pull the Vikings within seven.

"I was thinking that I needed to try to get something going," he said of his fourth quarter explosion.

But for every question Ajagu posed to the Bearcats, Brown had an answer that was worth one more point. The forward splashed in three long balls in the first two minutes of the final frame and answered Ajagu's dunk with his fourth three-ball of the quarter.

"Some nights he's on," Raffetto said of Brown, who led the Bearcats with 13 points. "He's a guy who could make 1O in a row, but could miss 10 in a row. He's a streak shooter."

Brown's final three put the Vikings'down by 10, forcing them to foul to stop the clock and regain possession. But San Mateo hit six of seven freethrows down the stretch, earning its first victory of the season, and leaving the Vikings with something to work on before they host Serra on Tuesday.

"Their easy baskets hurt us tonight," Ajagu said. "We need to work on handling the ball."