SAN JOSE >> Talk about great starts: Aden Cury drove the baseline, to his left, on Santa Cruz High’s first possession, and snuck a pass past an Archbishop MItty defender to teammate Kirby Seals, who attacked on the backside for an uncontested dunk.

Turns out, “great start” is a relative term. It was the furthest thing from it for Santa Cruz.

That Cardinals’ dazzling field goal in the first 30 seconds was their lone field goal of the quarter. The slow start, and 22 total turnovers, didn’t help the No. 8 seed Cardinals, who dropped their Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs opener to the top-seeded Monarchs, 63-51.

“We let a very good opportunity slip away,” Cardinals coach Lawan Milhouse said. “You can’t turn the ball over 22 times in a game like this. There was no ball pressure. I think it was like 22 unforced turnovers. It wasn’t like they were pressing us or pressuring us. We just turned the ball over. In a game like this, you gotta take care of the basketball.”

Nathan d’Abreu-Noronha scored Mitty’s first eight points and Princeton University-committed senior forward Derek Sangster scored the last eight points of the opening stanza to stake California’s 14th ranked team to a 20-6 lead.

“I think we were playing timid in the beginning,” Cardinals junior forward Ben Dotten said. “Once we got going, you know we won every other quarter, but we started a little too late.”

Mitty didn’t shy away from contact at either end of the floor. The Monarchs, co-champion of the West Catholic Athletic League, were whistled for plenty of fouls. But they got away with plenty, too. And if you ask most basketball coaches in the section, that’s pretty standard for WCAL games. They’re rough and tumble.

Santa Cruz, at least at the outset, wasn’t up to task.

“That’s the difference between playing in the West-Cal (WCAL) and playing in the SCCAL (Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League),” Milhouse said. “This is how they play. And we’re not allowed to play like that, and not too many teams in our league are going to play like that. It was something new for my guys. It’s basketball; it’s just a little more physical over here.”

All is not lost for the Cardinals (22-5), the SCCAL co-champion, nor has it been won by the Monarchs (21-4). The eight best teams that qualified for the Open Division were split into two pools, with each getting a minimum of three games.

The No. 8 Cardinals (22-5) play at No. 4 Junipero Serra (15-10) in San Mateo on Monday at 7 p.m., and at No. 5 St. Ignatius (13-12) in San Francisco on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Serra knocked off SI 63-44 in its playoff opener.

At the conclusion of pool play, the top team in Pool A and B will play for the section title at Santa Clara University’s Leavey Center on Friday at 8 p.m.

Mitty has won the past two Open titles under coach Tim Kennedy.

“I thought we’re capable of winning all three of our games,” Milhouse said. “But it comes down to our guys. They got to believe that. As a coach, I can say that ll day, but my guys got to believe that.”

Said Dotten: “I think we’re just trying to cross this one out and focus on the next two games. We still wanna go two and one, and get a good seed for NorCal. You know, if Mitty loses one of these games, there can still be a tie. It’s not over. We just want to focus on these next two games.”

Santa Cruz played a difficult nonleague slate to prepare ifself for the postseason. The Cardinals lost to SI 77-71 in their season opener on Nov. 26, and beat Saint Francis of Mountain View 54-41 at the end of December. But they had no answers for the Monarchs early.

“We just packed the paint, got in the stunts and lanes, just focused on on-ball defense, keep them in front, don’t let them get by you,” said Gavin Ripp, a junior center for Mitty.

Mitty led by as many as 21 points late in the second quarter, but Santa Cruz had a run of its own to pull within 11 points, 45-34, late in the third quarter.

Sangster provided offensive at the end of each quarter. He dunked over Cury for Mitty’s final field goal in the first half, buried a 3-pointer to end the third quarter, which gave the Monarchs a 48-34 lead, and made five free throws over the final 1:28. He finished with a game-high 25 points.

d’Abreu-Noronha scored 15 points, and Ripp scored 10 points.

“We just knew we had to box out really hard,” said Monarchs guard Tyler Jones, who re-aggravated an ankle injury late in the game. “If we kept them off the (offensive) boards we were going to be good, because we can get in transition off that.”

Cury led the Cardinals with 19 points and seven rebounds. Dotten had 14 points and three rebounds, and Demeke Smith scored all of his seven points in the second half.

Mitty was called for 18 fouls and Santa Cruz was called for 14. The Cardinals finished 19-of-24 shooting from the free-throw line.

“I think we got our head up,” Cury said. “Going to the next two games, they’re definitely winnable games. Learning experience, for sure. After the first quarter, we won those last three quarters. We know we can play with any team, we just came out slow.”