HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT

Lynwood--The city’s fourth Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Basketball Tournament continues to grow. This year the event, held during the King holiday weekend, featured teams from four counties. Thirty-nine teams participated in six divisions. (See results, this page).

MEMBERSHIP GRANTED Artesian Well Christian School--The Southern Section CIF executive committee has given approval for the private school in Long Beach to become a member of the section. The action allows Artesian Well athletic teams to compete against other teams in the section.

THAT’S THE TICKET Cerritos--Prime Ticket, a cable television service specializing in sporting events, has signed a three-year contract with an additional two-year option clause for the rights to broadcast CIF Southern Section championship events. The contract is another in a series of agreements that section administrators hope will provide greater exposure of high school sports. In addition to football playoff coverage, which it experimented with last fall, Prime Ticket will concentrate on championship contests in boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball and boys and girls track. Prime Ticket reaches 1.5 million subscribers on cable systems in Southern California.

LOCALS IN SUPER BOWL Pasadena--Participating in the New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday were two former area players now with the National Football League champions. Defensive back Herb Welch attended Warren High School and wide receiver Solomon Miller graduated from Compton High.

STREAKING Whittier Christian High School--The boys basketball team has won 17 consecutive games after opening the season with a loss. A year ago the Heralds lost only one game, snapping a 26-game winning streak in the championship final of the CIF Southern Section’s 1-A Division. That loss was to the eventual Division III state champion, Crossroads of Santa Monica.

BIG MATCH-UP Valley Christian High School--The Lady Crusaders hosted Whittier Christian in competition for the No. 1 spot in the Olympic League basketball race last week. The game featured the CIF Southern Section’s top two scorers. Valley Christian won the game, 75-50, but it was the match-up between Valley Christian’s 6-foot-3 center Kari Parriott and Whittier Christian’s 6-foot-1 center-forward Cindy Vyskocil that captured attention. Vyskocil is averaging 34.3 points and 9 rebounds a game. Parriott averages 28.3 points and 13 rebounds a game. In their first head-to-head meeting of the year, Parriott scored 36 points and had 15 rebounds. Vyskocil had 28 points and 9 rebounds. The teams meet again Feb. 10.

BASKETBALL NOTES Biola University--Ellis Yarrell, a 6-1 guard-forward transfer student from Tennessee Temple College, became eligible last week to play for Biola. According to co-Coach Dave Holmquist, Yarrell has the quickness to play guard and the agility to play power forward. “He could make the difference in the playoffs this season,” said John Anthony, sports information director. Yarrell was voted Tennessee Temple’s best defensive player last year.

Southern Section Playoffs--Sectional playoffs will begin Feb. 18 with wild card contests for both boys and girls. First-round action is scheduled Feb. 20. Pairings will be released Feb. 15.

Pioneer Baptist High School--James Baker scored 39 points and made 19 of 24 field goal attempts in a recent win over Wilmington Christian.

Whittier Christian High School--The Martin brothers, Chris, a 6-2 senior, and Erik, a 6-5 junior, combined to score 49 points in a recent win over Southern California Christian. Whittier Christian is the top-ranked team in the 1-A Division of the CIF Southern Section.

St. Paul High School--Guards John Guerrero and Jason Hart have combined to connect on 52 of 58 free throw attempts in the last two minutes of games this season. Guerrero, a 5-10 junior point guard, is hitting 84% of his free throw tries.

Clemson University--Michael Tate, the former St. John Bosco High School player and starting guard for the Clemson Tigers, is completing 52.7% of his two-point field goal attempts. He has hit 45.9% of his three-point tries. Tate is tied for the team lead in steals with 31. Clemson is 17-1.

Athletes In Action--Lorenzo Romar, former all-state player at Cerritos College, had an outstanding performance recently when AIA played an exhibition game at Biola University. Romar went three-for-three from three-point field goal range. He finished with 21 points and helped AIA to victory, 107-86. AIA is a traveling Christian all-star team composed of players whose college eligibility has expired.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tony Acone, Prime Ticket--In explaining why his firm signed a contract to cablecast high school sporting events, the company president said: “The most fertile area for high school athletics in the nation is right here in Southern California . . . We will be able to give widespread exposure to the premier student-athletes in the area.”