Ellis Finds Festival Foe in His Future Coach : Mater Dei Star Plays for West Basketball Team; Sutton Coaches South

Eddie Sutton, coach of the U.S. Olympic Festival South basketball team, has taken to issuing an idle and friendly threat to LeRon Ellis when he passes him in the hallways of the dormitory where they are staying here.

Ellis, who is on the West team, will play for Sutton at the University of Kentucky this fall.

“I’ve kind of psyched him out,” Sutton said. “When I run into him, I say, ‘We’re going to beat you, and if we don’t, you might not be able to show up next year.’ ”

Sutton makes the announcement to Eric Manuel of Macon, Ga., who is on the North team and also will play at Kentucky, in addition to Ellis, who led Mater Dei High School to the 5-A state championship last season.

Ellis, a late addition to the roster, scored five points Saturday in the West’s 90-71 loss to Sutton’s South team in the Dean E. Smith Center at Chapel Hill.

Tom Lewis, the former Mater Dei star who was required to redshirt last season at Pepperdine after transferring from USC, where he led the Trojans in scoring his freshman year, scored 17 points to lead the West. Mark Georgeson, who played at Marina High last year and will attend the University of Arizona in the fall, started the game, as did Lewis, but did not score. Neither did Bryant Walton, who graduated from Saddleback High in 1986 and played for Cal last year.

Those who described the prowess of four of the women’s national kayaking team members who train together at Newport Harbor apparently did not exaggerate. In the 500-meter K-1 finals Friday, 1984 Olympian Sheila Conover of Newport Beach won the gold medal, JoJo Toeppner, also of Newport Beach, won the silver, Shirley Dery-Batlik of Costa Mesa, also a 1984 Olympian, won the bronze and Sharon Attlesey of Newport Beach finished fourth.

Jirka Batlik of Costa Mesa, the husband of Dery-Batlik, won the bronze in the 1,000-meter canoe singles final.

Bev Oden of Irvine, the younger sister of U.S. national volleyball team members Kim and Elaina Oden, sparked the East to a 15-9, 15-9, 15-8 sweep of the West, coming off the bench to collect 5 blocks and 7 kills.

Oden, 16, replaced Patty Lake, who injured an ankle early in the first game.

Festival Notes

Deborah Graham of Fountain Valley, top-seeded in women’s tennis singles, advanced easily, defeating Merideth Geiger, 6-1, 6-1. . . . Cyclist Nancy Niklas of Irvine finished sixth in the 70-kilometer road race, which was won by Jessie Grieco of Emerson in 1:18.50. . . . Dan Hanan of Huntington Beach had 21 kills for the South volleyball team in a five-game match loss to the North, and Hugh Foster, who led Newport Harbor High to an undefeated season, had 16 for the East in a three-game loss to the West. . . . Maureen Hannon of Laguna Niguel and Brad Parks of Tustin were winners in the first round of wheelchair tennis singles competition. First-round losers: Dan Lachman, Corona del Mar; Christie Rudder, Laguna Niguel, and Jan Sherman, Santa Ana. . . . Val Rosas of Buena Park, 1986 Festival archery champion, is in 10th place after the first day of competition. . . . Shawn Brack of Garden Grove, the 1987 National Junior trap champion, is tied for second after the first day of trap shooting. . . . West softball pitcher Susan LeFebvre, a former Cal State Fullerton star, struck out a batter with two out and two runners in scoring position as the West (Southern California Invasion) held off the East, 4-3, in nine innings. LeFebvre also had a run-scoring double.