SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS’ BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES : SMALL SCHOOLS : Hesperia Christian vs. Whitney

Bruce Carlisle has something to prove. The boys basketball coach at Whitney High School in Cerritos predicted before the season that his team would successfully defend its Small Schools title.

“If we don’t win it all again this year, then I didn’t do a very good job of coaching,” Carlisle said in November.

So far top-ranked Whitney has met the challenge. The Wildcats host Hesperia Christian tonight at Biola University at 7:30 to decide the title.

Both teams are 23-2 and neither is a stranger to post-season play. Whitney has advanced to the playoffs in all but one of its five seasons. Hesperia is making its second appearance in the final in three years.

Whitney returns five starters and eight players from last season’s championship team. All the starters are averaging more than 10 points a game. Matt Bowley, a 6-2 swingman, is even expected to be named the Small Schools Player of the Year for the second straight season.

Hesperia Christian has four players who average more than 10 points, including co-Christian League Players of the Year Mark Loomis and Mike Jones.

But the game belongs as much to the coaches as it does to the players. Both Carlisle and his counterpart, Bruce Comer, will not return next year. Carlisle announced last spring that this will be his last season because the school and the city could not agree upon the details of building a campus gymnasium. Whitney often practices outdoors and has had difficulty scheduling sites for home games.

Comer is leaving Hesperia Christian after 12 seasons. He’s taken the Patriots to the playoffs seven consecutive times, but resigned to become the football coach at league rival Linfield Christian of Temecula.

“He’d like to see the kids win this one for themselves, not for him,” said assistant coach Lester Simpson of Comer. “He’d be the last guy to tell you he’s leaving. It would be nice to win this one for him.”

Said Carlisle in his usual tone: “This is going to be a game of games.”