Prep Preview CIF SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS : Shooting, Experience Favor Crespi

Crespi High basketball Coach Paul Muff has one of his poorest rebounding teams ever.

“We don’t get a lot of second chances,” Muff said.

So far, the Celts haven’t needed many.

“This is the best shooting team I have ever had here,” said Muff, who is in his ninth season at Crespi. “We always shoot around 50% here, but this team is shooting 54%. And most of the shots are from the 15-foot range and beyond.”

Combine Crespi’s long-range accuracy with the fact that three starters have returned from last season’s league championship team and it is easy to see why league coaches expect the Celts to win the Del Rey League in 1985.

“It’s nice to be the favorite,” Muff said, “but you want to be there at the end. I think the league is pretty well balanced.”

Most coaches agreed that the league is not as strong as in the past, and that anybody could grab the three spots in the Southern Section’s Big 5 playoffs. They also agreed the Celts from Encino are the ones to beat.

Crespi is 2-1 in league play (7-6 overall) after losing to Loyola, 45-43, Tuesday night. The Celts opened Del Rey play with wins over Notre Dame (69-56) and St. Francis (76-56) last week.

Brian Capp leads the Celts in scoring, averaging 17 a game. Capp, Jon Kirchner and Alfie Basile were starters on last season’s 19-6 (11-1 in league) team, which made it to the second round of the playoffs.

Joe Campanella, the sixth man in 1983-84, is second on the team with an average of 15 a game. Crespi’s tallest starter, Steve Tanin, is only 6-4, which partly explains why the Celts are not strong off the boards.

Muff said the Celts play perimeter defense as well as any team he’s had. But inside, Crespi could have problems with some of the league’s big men.

David Djolakian (6-6) and Fernando Lopez (6-7) are two who could give Crespi trouble. The pair have led Alemany to a 12-3 record so far. The Indians are 2-0 in league after Tuesday’s 68-45 win over Bosco Tech.

Djolakian, first-team All-Del Rey last season, has been hampered most of the year by an ankle injury. Alemany Coach Joe Anlauf said Djolakian’s ankle is at about 90%. In a 71-62 win over St. John Bosco last week, Djolakian had 26 points and 14 rebounds.

Freshman James Moses is averaging 17 points a game for Alemany. “He’s a little more advanced than a normal freshman,” Anlauf said. “He definitely one of the best players in our program.”

First-year Notre Dame coach Matt Vickers went into the season with a front line of Brian Anderson (6-8), John Perak (6-6) and George Padilla (6-6). Vickers believed a league title was possible, but an ankle injury to Padilla has forced Vickers “to change things around.”

Padilla hasn’t fully recovered and Anderson is averaging just 14.5 points a game. Vickers would like to see Anderson, a second-team all-league member last year, average about 18 to 20 points.

Sophomore Josh Oppenheimer has taken over at point guard for the Knights, who lost their third straight league game, 72-64, to St. Francis Tuesday night.

St. John Bosco was considered by many coaches to be one of the league’s stronger teams, but the Braves lost their first two Del Rey encounters to Alemany and Bosco Tech.

Bosco Tech is without Wayne Engelstad (who is now at UC Irvine), but the Techmen still upset St. John Bosco, 62-52, last week. “We could have nothing to do with the league,” Bosco Tech Coach Jorge Calienes said, “or we could be right in the thick of it.”

Junior Mark Tilson is the only player at Loyola who saw much action on the varsity team last season, so Bill Thomason’s team is inexperienced. Tilson, 6-3, is averaging nearly 18 points a game. Center Mike Boken is a 6-8 junior.

St. Francis won just one league game all last season, but Drew Sorensen’s team matched that with a 46-43 win over Loyola last week. Matt Dyrek is St. Francis’ big man, averaging 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds a game. Dyrek, who had 26 points against Crespi, missed 10 games earlier this season with a severly strained ligament in his right ankle.