Girls’ basketball: Spotlight on Cajon

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What has become of Cajon of San Bernardino, last season’s CIF Division I-AA champions, since Layshia Clarendon and Darshae Burnside graduated?

Clarendon, who now plays for Cal, led the Cowgirls to a 32-2 record last season, averaging 20.4 points per game. She won a gold medal as a member of Team USA at the 2009 FIBA Under-19 World Championships in Bangkok this summer.

Burnside currently plays for Arkansas. The 6-foot-3 center averaged a double-double last season with 17.6 points and 16.2 rebounds.

Now they’re gone, and Coach Mark Lehman needs to change his game plan. ‘We don’t have finesse players like we had last year,’ he said.

He called his young squad a ‘Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde’ team. In preseason games Cajon defeated Inglewood, Etiwanda, Troy and JSerra, but lost to Oaks Christian, Brea Olinda, Long Beach Poly and Washington.

‘We’re at least a year away from being a consistent team,’ Lehman said.

-- Melissa Rohlin