Girls’ basketball: Beverly Hills looking for first playoff win since 1978

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Beverly Hills hasn’t won a Southern Section girls’ basketball playoff game since 1978, but Coach John Braddell said the Normans have their best chance to end their postseason futility in his eight seasons as coach Thursday when they play host to Claremont in a Division II-AA wild card round game.

‘We have the most talent we’ve had here in a long time,’ Braddell said. ‘The girls are working hard, playing hard. Hopefully, this will be the year.’

One season, Braddell stuck a sheet of paper with ‘1978’ written on it on his office door to remind his players of the last time the girls’ basketball team won a playoff game, specifically a victory over Mission Hills Alemany in a first-round Division 4-A game, then the top division. However, he said he hasn’t told this team about the school’s postseason futility and doesn’t plan to tell his players about it until after Thursday’s game.

Braddell said he was ‘shocked’ when he was first told three years ago that the last playoff victory came in 1978. ‘All those years you would think we would have won one playoff game,’ said Braddell, who has guided the Normans to playoff berths for each of the past four seasons and five of the last six.

The Normans (17-9) were 15th in the final Division II-AA rankings released Sunday. Eight of their nine losses were to fellow Ocean League teams -- third-ranked Santa Monica, eighth-ranked Inglewood and 11th-ranked Culver City. (The other was to Whittier.) Four of their losses have been by six points or less.

Freshman forward Morgan Mason is Beverly Hills’ leading scorer, averaging 13.3 points a game, followed by junior guard Sophie Payson, who is averaging 10.6. Senior guard Taylor Craig is averaging 8.6 points and 6.9 assists.

‘We have a positive attitude,’ Braddell said. ‘We’re not just happy to be here. We’re expecting to do well in the playoffs.’

-- Steven Herbert, guest blogger