Los Angeles Times 1987 ALL-STARS : Superlatives Fall Short of Adequately Describing Boys Basketball All-Stars

Anyone attempting to describe The Times’ 1987 All-Westside high school boys basketball team will quickly exhaust his vocabulary of superlatives. Better to stick with the word best , knowing that it will be appropriate.

The team is almost certainly the best ever chosen on the Westside, probably the best in the entire West and possibly the best prep all-star team in the nation this year.

It includes players from Fairfax and St. Monica high schools, whose teams were considered by many to be among the nation’s best, and from Crossroads, the California Division III champion.

It has three Fairfax players--Sean Higgins, Chris Mills and J. D. Green--who were regarded by coaches, fans, sportswriters and scouts as being the best front line in America. Mills was named the 4-A Los Angeles City player of the year.

It has two players from St. Monica, guard Jason Matthews and center Brian Williams, who were also among the nation’s best.

Crossroads is represented by point guard Chris Brown, named the CIF-Southern Section 1-A player of the year by the First Interstate Bank Board of Sportswriters.

Veteran Palisades Coach Jerry Marvin simply called his team’s representative, guard Jeff Bronner, “outstanding.”

Other first-team members are Oliver Lang of Venice, Zan Mason of Westchester and Danny Price of Santa Monica. Lang, who played guard, forward and center, was one of the best in the city of Los Angeles and was named to the All-City 3-A team.

A 6-7 forward, Mason, only a sophomore, was selected for the All-City 4-A team, an honor for an underclassman.

Price was the best player on one of the Southern Section’s best teams. His Vikings won the CIF 4-A championship.

Repeaters from last year are Higgins, Mills and Matthews. The tallest player is Williams at 6-10; the smallest is the 6-1 Brown.

The Fairfax team was among the state’s--and the nation’s--best. The Lions lost only once and that was to state Division I champion Mater Dei in the Southern California Regional title game for that division. Fairfax finished the season with a 26-1 overall record.

St. Monica (18-6) also lost to Mater Dei, by one point in the 5-A CIF playoff semifinals. Santa Monica (19-10) lost to Fairfax in the Division III regional semifinals.

Crossroads (26-5), though a lower-level team, played and sometimes defeated upper-level squads.

Preseason All-American recognition from Street & Smith magazine went to Higgins, a second-team selection; Mills, high honorable mention, and Matthews and Williams, honorable mention. All lived up to their reputations.

Most of the all-stars are heading for NCAA Division I college basketball teams. Higgins will go to Michigan, Green to Southern Methodist, Matthews to Pittsburgh, Price to Weber State and Williams to Maryland. And the other two seniors on the team, Bronner and Brown, are expected to sign letters of intent with Division I schools.

In summary, the Westside had some awfully good teams and players--some of the best.

Capsule descriptions of each player:

Bronner--Averaged 15.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists a game and shot 55% from the field.

Brown--A forward as a junior, he was switched to point guard by Coach David Benezra to fill a vacancy. Brown did more than just fill in, averaging 15.3 points, 5 assists and 3 steals a game and hitting a superb 58% of his field-goal attempts.

Green--A member of the All-City 4-A first team, he averaged 21.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 blocked shots a game.

Higgins--Another All-City 4-A selection, he played forward, center and guard and averaged 22.8 points, 8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 3 blocked shots.

Lang--Another all-position player, he seemed to be everywhere on the court at the same time. He averaged 20.3 points, 12.7 rebounds, 5 steals, 4.3 blocked shots and 3.2 assists.

Mason--Westchester Coach Ed Azzam said that Mason is “a great offensive player” who “cannot be stopped inside.” He averaged 20.4 points and 9 rebounds.

Matthews--A scoring machine, perhaps the best in the Southern Section. He averaged 27 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

Mills--A force in the middle, the 6-6 1/2 junior averaged 26.2 points, 12 rebounds, nearly 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots.

Price--A team leader and outstanding shooter, he averaged 16 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds.

Williams--An intimidator on defense, he averaged 9 blocked shots, 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Honorable mention:

Bel-Air Prep--Derrick Thornton, Trebien Edwards.

Beverly Hills--Lincoln Sneed.

Crossroads--David Wolfe, Matt Bailey.

Culver City--Steve Jeter.

Daniel Murphy--Walter Husband.

Palisades--Paul Garrett, Kenny Woods.

St. Monica--Jason Joe.

Santa Monica--Keith Neal, Trane Hunter.

University--Robert Haynes.

Venice--Lucio Chaidez.

Westchester--Michael Brown, Sam Crawford, David Hollaway.

The all-star boys and girls teams, each consisting of 10 members, their coaches and parents will be guests of the Times at 9 a.m. Sunday at the annual Times High School Basketball Awards Brunch where all-star teams from 10 circulation areas will be honored at the Anaheim Hilton. The featured Speaker will be first-year USC Coach George Raveling. The players and coaches of the year from each area will be announced.

The teams were chosen on the basis of a poll of area coaches, who are asked to fill out ballots nominating their own players and opponents, plus the observations of college scouts and sportswriters. Each player will receive the traditional Times golden basketball plaque and award certificate.

BOYS PREP TEAM

Name School Year Height Average Jeff Bronner Palisades Senior 6-3 15.6 Chris Brown Crossroads Senior 6-1 15.3 J. D. Green Fairfax Senior 6-5 21.7 Sean Higgins Fairfax Senior 6-9 22.8 Oliver Lang Venice Senior 6-4 20.3 Zan Mason Westchester Sophomore 6-7 20.4 Jason Matthews St. Monica Senior 6-3 1/2 27.0 Chris Mills Fairfax Junior 6-6 1/2 26.2 Danny Price Santa Monica Senior 6-3 16.0 Brian Williams St. Monica Senior 6-10 18.0