Prep Basketball : City Champions Hit Road Both North and South

Two of the City Section champions will head north and two will head south as the Southern California regional basketball tournament gets under way tonight, with winners returning to the Sports Arena Saturday.

Tonight, Fairfax (22-1), the boys’ 3-A champion, will play Edison of Fresno, which has a 25-3 record and 15 straight wins, at McLane High in Fresno, and the girls’ 4-A winner Locke (22-2) will meet 25-1 Delano at Mount Whitney in Visalia.

Crenshaw’s boys’ and girls’ teams, winners in the 4-A and 3-A divisions, respectively, both will travel to the San Diego area. The two-time defending State Division II champion Point Loma will play host tothe girls (15-3) tonight and the boys’ team will play Poway Wednesday at Mira Mesa High. Poway, the San Diego Section 3-A champion has a 24-1 record.

The Cougars, the top-ranked boys team in California with a 21-0 record, lost in the regional title game last season to Long Beach Poly, the eventual state champion, but have rarely been tested this year.

“We’ve really been looking forward to winning the state this year,” said forward Stanley Brundy, who scored 10 points before fouling out in Crenshaw’s 73-62 City championship victory over Manual Arts Friday night at the Sports Arena. “We didn’t get to go last year, so we’re gonna take it all the way this year.”

Is there a team that can beat the Cougars?

“No, not really, “ Brundy said.

Not even Riordan of San Francisco, which played the Cougars tough before losing, 75-71, in the finals of the Chaminade tournament in December?

“They don’t have a chance,” Brundy said.

Meanwhile, the Southern Section will move into the semifinal round with games Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The Long Beach Arena will be the site of two 5-A/4-A boys’ doubleheaders, with Glendale (26-0) taking on 26-1 Lynwood at 7 p.m. and Long Beach Poly (19-7) meeting Ocean View (23-3) at 8:45 Wednesday. Dominguez (22-4) will play Buena (24-2) in the 7 p.m. game Thursday, followed by No. 1 Mater Dei (27-0) against Serra (21-5) in the 5-A game.

In other boys’ games tonight, Bonita (24-4) will play Nogales (23-6) at Rowland High School, and Morningside (21-4) will play Damien (21-8) at Inglewood High in a pair of 3-A games; Chadwick (24-2) and Whittier Christian (20-4), and Crossroads of Santa Monica (18-8) and Montclair Prep (22-1) will play at Sonora and Santa Monica high schools, respectively, in 1-A games; and the Small Schools will have Woodcrest Christian (19-5) and Temple Christian of Ventura (21-2) playing at Ventura High, and Needles (17-6) taking on Hesperia Christian (20-2) at Twentynine Palms High.

The 2-A is the only other division playing Wednesday, with Santa Clara (25-3) and Agoura (14-11) at Westlake, and Nordhoff (17-8) and El Monte (19-7) at Ventura College.

Compton, the top-ranked girls team in California, will take a 24-0 record into its 4-A semifinal with 27-2 Lynwood tonight at Compton College. The Lady Babes have outscored their first three playoff opponents by approximately 46 points a game. Muir (23-1) will meet Gahr, 24-6 after a double-overtime win over Buena Saturday, at Pasadena High in the other 4-A game.

Brea-Olinda, at 28-0 the only other undefeated girls’ team, will play Riverside Poly (23-2) at Valencia High in one 3-A game, and Foothill (26-3) will travel to Antelope Valley High to play Palmdale (25-2). In the 2-A, La Quinta (25-4) will meet Cajon (25-2) at Los Amigos, and Chino (24-3) will take on San Luis Obispo (23-3) at Don Lugo.

Santa Clara (24-2) is also alive in girls’ play, taking on San Dimas (25-2) in a 1-A game at Rio Mesa High. Rim of the World (15-6) will travel to Cerritos High to meet Valley Christian (18-7) in the other game. The Small Schools Division has Flintridge Sacred Heart (21-3) meeting Trona (16-7) at Ramona Convent and Rio Hondo Prep (22-2) traveling to Desert High School to play Boron (17-3).

The final rounds for the Southern Section, at the Long Beach Arena, and the Southern California regionals, at the Sports Arena, are both scheduled Saturday. The boys’ and girls’ champions in three divisions will take to the road again for the state finals March 16 at Oakland against the Northern California winners, but this is the end of the road for the Southern Section, which voted last spring to skip the state tournament.