Girls’ Basketball Preview : Morningside Girls Find It’s Crowded at the Top

If you want to know for sure which girls prep basketball team is the best in the South Bay, you’re probably going to have to wait, at least until just before Christmas.

That’s the opinion of Palos Verdes Coach Wendell Yoshida.

By then Palos Verdes, the area’s fourth-ranked team, will have played Morningside, Redondo and St. Mary’s, the top three ranked teams in that order, according to a preseason poll of South Bay coaches.

For Palos Verdes to be the top team at that point, it must beat St. Mary’s (Dec. 11) and Redondo (Dec. 16) at home and then topple Sarnia St. Patrick’s of Canada in the first round of the Tournament of Champions in order to be undefeated for a showdown Dec. 21 against Morningside. Of the top four teams, only Palos Verdes plays all three others.

A look at the South Bay’s Top 10 teams:

1. Morningside--There are high school coaches who hope that a few blue-chippers come along in their career. But that’s not a problem of Morningside Coach Frank Scott.

“His starting five could go on to play at Division I schools,” said Redondo Coach Tim Ammentorp, the Monarchs’ Pioneer League rival.

“They are all blue-chippers,” Scott said. “I guess I’m pretty lucky.”

It’s been five years since Scott hasn’t won a league title, while not losing a league game during that span. Morningside finished 27-3 last year and lost in the semifinals of the CIF playoffs, but Scott says the team--returning four starters--can improve on that. All the components are there for a championship. Offense: All-state forward Shaunda Greene averaged 20 points a game last year, guard Carla Gladden 15, center Lisa Leslie 14 and Jo Jo Witherspoon 8. Defense: Try getting a shot off in the presence of 6-foot-4 Leslie, eight blocks a game, or 6-0 Greene, four per game. Greene and Leslie each averaged 10 rebounds a game and Witherspoon averaged 4 steals. The fifth starter is senior Althea Moses, who will probably opt for track in college.

“With our talent, you might think egos would be a problem,” Scott said. “But we play team ball.”

2. Redondo--Redondo ranks among the South Bay’s best teams every year but can’t win the Pioneer League, playing second fiddle to Morningside.

“Every year, we’re playing for second place,” Coach Tim Ammentorp said. “We gear up for the Morningside games every year, but no one has beaten them in a league game in five years, little alone come close.”

The Sea Hawks return four starters from an 18-7 team that finished second in league.

If the experience of being beaten by Morningside is a sour one, four-year starters Janeen Guinn and Marlo Correa won’t let their teammates forget it. Guinn, a 5-10 center, teams with Vanessa Vogelsang (6-1) and Krishna Christenson (5-11) to make an imposing front line. Lisa Wenker, the team’s leading scorer with a 10-point average last year, joins Carrea in the back court.

“We are a strong and physical team,” Ammentorp said. “But sometimes the team wants to run up and down the court and fast break. I tell them we have to take advantage of our size advantage.”

3. St. Mary’s--Perennial South Bay power St. Mary’s, which finished 19-5 last year, has four starters returning who combined to average 50 points a game. “I must say, we are going to be hard to beat,” second-year Coach Cedric Hurt said. “I think we can go all the way if we stay healthy.”

If is the key word. Last season injuries riddled St. Mary’s all season, including the playoffs when all-CIF guard Tammy Booker didn’t play because of a dislocated finger and the Belles lost in the second round.

With a week until the start of the season, Booker and 6-foot-1 center Shunda Thompson have the flu. Until they are healthy, forwards Erin Banks and Raedon Turner will have to share the scoring and rebounding load. No problem: Banks averaged 14 points and a South Bay high of 16 rebounds a game, Turner 10 points and 8 rebounds. Unfortunately for Camino Real league teams, Booker and Thompson will likely be heathly when league play starts, and the Belles will be an easy favorite to win their fourth consecutive title.

4. Palos Verdes--After winning his first Bay League championship in eight years, Coach Yoshida may have Palos Verdes ready to challenge Morningside for South Bay supremacy, especially with 6-foot-4 twins, Heather and Heidi Burge, who dominated last year as sophomores.

The twins--who each averaged 13 points and 14 rebounds--led Palos Verdes to a 21-6 record, although the Sea Kings never cracked the Southern Section’s Top 10 poll. However, that will be different this season.

“Everybody thinks we will be good,” Yoshida said. “But I like being the underdog. When you are ranked sometimes you play games not to lose.”

Yoshida will start two sophomores and doesn’t know how his team will react to the rankings. “It’s a lot of pressure to put on the kids,” he said. “Hopefully, they don’t become satisfied with it (ranking) because that’s when you lose.”

Sophomores Mary Maloney and Susan Willhite will start at forward and guard. Willhite will look for leadership from four-year varsity player Anglesey Thomas at guard.

5. Westchester--Westchester will play run and gun basketball, trying to go one game further than last season: the City 3-A championship at the Sports Arena.

“Our only problem is our own doing,” second-year Coach Beverly Pendleton said. Her team finished 15-5, 8-2 and in first place in the Mid-Valley League. “Sometimes we tend to forget about our offense and just free-lance,” he commented.

Forget or not, Westchester has the talent to be “one of the top five teams in City,” Pendleton said. Back are Trisha Stafford, co-most valuable player of the league last year, and two other all-league players, guards Tammy Story and Relinda Reed. Stafford, a 6-1 center who has signed a letter of intent with Cal Berkeley, averaged 20 points and 15 rebounds last year. Story, a 5-7 guard who has signed with USC, averaged 15 points. Talented underclassmen Dana Johnson, Lauri Williams and Tammie Sadler should play major roles for the Comets.

6. Carson--When you think of mean and tough players at Carson, usually the football team comes to mind, but the adjectives also fit the girls basketball team, according to Coach Tony Park.

“We play an aggressive brand of basketball and teams who play us are going to come away with bruises,” Park said. “We scrimmage the boys Bee and Cee teams everyday and they beat up on us, but when we go against girls teams, it’s going to be a mismatch.”

Aggressiveness is the earmark of the Colts inside game, instigated by the Alafua twins, Audrey and Sonya. Both are 5-foot-10 bruisers who averaged more than 10 rebounds a game last season when Carson missed the championship game of the City Section by one game, despite finishing only 10-10, 5-5 and third place in the Marine League.

“Off the court, Sonya is a real pussycat,” Park said. “But on the court, she has a real mean streak.”

The back court is also strong with returning starters Kisha Moreland and Diana Miyak and sophomore Tafelala Lesa, who Park predicted “will be recruited by scouts from all over the country by her junior year.”

7. Leuzinger--Three years ago, in her first year as coach at Leuzinger, Susan Haynes’ team finished 1-19 and got beat by 50 and 60 points. “We had so much fun,” Haynes said of her first year. “Our main priority is to have fun. The second is to win.”

The Olympians should do both this season with a close-knit group that returns three starters from last season’s team that was 13-7, 7-5 in the Pioneer league.

“We go roller skating, bowling, bicycling and to women’s college basketball games together,” Haynes said. “If the support is there off the court, you know it will be there on the court.”

Opponents will have to reckon with Kawasci Jackson, a 5-foot-11 sophomore forward who averaged 13 points, 8 rebounds and shot 87% from the free-throw line on her way to all-Pioneer League honors. Center Monica Gamboa (6-0), 10 rebounds a game, is a strong post player, and Cindy Halvorson, a 5-5 guard who averaged 14 points, complements the inside play of Jackson and Gamboa with a sweet jumper. Left-hander Sabrina Washington will direct the team at point guard.

8. Bishop Montgomery--The Knights have a solid front line and back court. And, finally, they may have a solid team.

“We worked hard all summer and toward the end of summer league finally started to look like a team,” co-Coach Cynthia Mitchell said. “All of a sudden, we clicked.”

Bishop finished only 8-11, 4-6 in the Camino Real League but there is no question about the individual talent.

Center Tara Thomas and forward Monica Wood, both 5-10, are juniors who took control of some games as sophomores. Thomas, a two-year starter, averaged 11 rebounds and 9 points while Wood averaged 8 rebounds and 10 points. Another junior and front-line player is Shelly Graham, who averaged 10 points.

The back court is also talented and will be steered by second-team all-CIF guard Genevieve Wilkinson, a senior who should give valuable leadership to Lilly Cabaleiro, a gifted freshman who will start.

Bishop Montgomery will try to get momentum in the preseason before opening its league schedule against Mater Dei, Angelus League champ the past three years.

9. Banning--First-year Coach David Deloby may find it hard to improve a team that won 21 games and lost only seven, finishing second in the Marine League. Although three returning starters should help, Deloby is making changes. “I’m giving the team a heavy dose of fundamentals and not dealing too much with strategies,” Deloby said. “If your fundamentals aren’t sound, then you probably can’t execute a strategy anyway.”

Without a deep bench, Deloby will rely heavily on center Jeanine Hobbs and guards Candice Burnette and Raini Reado. Hobbs, a 6-1 senior who signed an early letter of intent with Cal Irvine, averaged 11 points and 12 rebounds last year. Burnette, a 5-6 point guard, likes to feed Hobbs inside and is getting letters from colleges as a junior. Latisha Adams, a standout on the jayvees last year, could blossom at forward. 10.

10. (tie) --Mary Star of the Sea--With three returning starters, including all-league forward Laura Papadakis, this squad could make ripples. It finished 15-10 a year ago.

10. (tie)--Torrance--Former North coach Rich Momohar has moved to Torrance and inherited a team with three returning starters that finished 16-3 and in second place in the Bay League.