Rim-Jarring Routine by 6-2 Mauldin Bends Crowell Out of Shape

San Fernando Coach Dick Crowell must have felt like slam dunking guard Joe Mauldin last week during the Hart tournament.

Mauldin, it seems, attempted a couple of rim-bending jams. When he missed, Crowell howled.

A senior and acknowledged team leader, Mauldin jarred the rim with three dunk attempts late in the Tigers’ 71-68 loss to Beverly Hills, which eventually won the tournament with a 75-55 win over Hart.

“I took him to the shed and had a man-to-man talk with him,” Crowell said. “The next game, he laid everything in off the glass.”

Mauldin was guilty of violating Crowell’s 6-10 rule: If you can make a shot 6 out of 10 times during practice, you can attempt the shot in a game.

“I don’t think he can be counted on to make a dunk 6 of 10 times,” Crowell said. “Joe forgets that he’s only 6-2, and in the fourth quarter his legs get a little tired.”

Mauldin, who finished with 21 points against Beverly Hills, scored 25 the following night as San Fernando defeated Saugus, 83-62, in the third-place game.

“He’s a terrific athlete and I think he learned a big lesson,” Crowell said. “He made better decisions against Saugus.”

Hobbling and dribbling: Saugus’ Jared Snyder is having a difficult time trying to remain in Coach John Clark’s starting lineup. Snyder sprained an ankle in the Hart tournament last week and is a doubtful starter for Saugus’ Golden League opener tonight at Burroughs of Ridgecrest.

Snyder, the quarterback on the football team and the catcher on the baseball team, has been plagued with injured ankles throughout his career. Last spring, Snyder broke an ankle trying to score on a squeeze play. In the fall, Snyder’s ankles sustained further punishment avoiding pass rushers.

“He’s a good player if I can keep him put together,” Clark said.

Clark tapes the 6-2 senior’s ankles before each game. “He’s running gingerly right now,” Clark said.

Center Vladimir Bilik, who also sprained an ankle in the Hart tournament, is expected to play.

It was last season that Saugus’ 2 1/2-hour bus ride to Burroughs resulted in a thrilling double-overtime win and an end to the Burros’ 48-game winning streak at home. Burroughs (8-5) has not lost at home since.

Add Saugus: Jason Harrison, a transfer in the off-season from Hamilton, finally has cracked the Centurions’ starting lineup. Harrison, a lanky forward and quick jumper, may provide Saugus with much-needed punch on the boards. Harrison (6-2) had 12 rebounds against Hart and 13 against San Fernando and was named to the all-tournament team.

Never a bride: Somebody might have forgotten to tell Hart what the advantage is of a having a home-court advantage. The Indians (7-5) have yet to win their own basketball tournament, which began in 1972. Hart has, however, finished second seven times, including last week’s 75-55 loss to Beverly Hills in the championship game.

First-year Coach Greg Herrick hoped to use that drought to his advantage.

“I told the kids before the game that they have a chance to do something that no team has done before. When I was an athlete, those were the kind of things that motivated me,” he said. “They were just a better team.”

Despite its inability to win its own tournament, Herrick said Hart is trying to improve next year’s list of teams.

“We’re going to see if we can get Cleveland and Simi Valley back in the tournament,” Herrick said. “I’ve talked to the coaches and we’re going to see if we can accommodate them, because we want to upgrade the tournament.”

Twice as painful: Sylmar Coach Billy Reed realized his unbeaten team might suffer two losses when the Spartans played in the Eagle Rock tournament last week, but he didn’t think they would lose twice to the same school.

The Spartans lost to University, 75-39, in the first round. Although Reed was disappointed, he wasn’t surprised. “They’re definitely the best team we’ve played,” Reed said. “They’re awesome. Having to play them in the first round was very difficult.”

And playing the University junior varsity in a consolation game turned out to be just as difficult--Sylmar lost again, 50-42.

“That was a real surprise,” Reed said. “They have a good JV team, but I think we should have beaten them. We took them lightly and we paid the price.”

Taking offense: Nick Sanderson of Bell-Jeff is averaging 21 points a game, but Coach Joe Dunn isn’t raving about the caliber of his play.

“Nick’s offense has been fine,” Dunn said. “He’s shooting very well and he’s picked up the slack for some of our injured guys. But his defense and rebounding haven’t been up to par.

“He’s scoring a lot, but he’s also giving up a lot of points on defense.”

Sanderson, a 6-2 junior who averaged 10.1 points a game last season, took Dunn’s words to heart in the championship game of the Bell-Jeff tournament last Wednesday, scoring a game-high 31 points and grabbing 7 rebounds in the Guards’ 66-65, double-overtime loss to Downey.

“That was the best game I’ve seen him play in two years,” Dunn said. “That was the first game this season when he really hit the boards and played good defense.

“I told him if he plays like that the rest of the year, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

Unhappy returns: Westlake Coach Greg Hess is still pondering how his team went awry recently against Camarillo. After beating the Scorpions, 70-67, in the consolation final of the Ventura tournament Dec. 30, the Warriors lost to Camarillo three days later, 62-45, to open Marmonte League play.

Several Westlake players apparently lost their composure in the final minutes of the 17-point loss. Two technical fouls and several intentional fouls were called against the Warriors.

“These kids talk crap to other kids on the floor and to the refs,” the first-year coach said, “and that’s totally out of my style. The losses are a lot less important than the attitude.”

As for Camarillo, the Scorpions are 6-5 overall, 1-0 in league play and earning some respect in Coach John Harbour’s return after a yearlong sabbatical.

“Everybody was really mentally ready,” Harbour said. “It was almost a good thing we lost that first game the way that we did. We were real focused, ready to go.”

Bad blow: Sophomore Falicia Stanley, a starter for the Kennedy girls team, will miss this week’s games because of injuries she suffered in a holiday automobile accident.

Stanley, a 5-6 guard, was involved in a crash with two members of the Kennedy junior varsity after a Simi Valley tournament game last month. Stanley’s twin, Alicia, and Carrie Jones, a junior, also were involved. Alicia Stanley required surgery but is doing well, according to Craig Raub, Kennedy’s former coach.

“The boyfriend of one of them was driving and they hit the wall on the freeway at night,” Raub said, “I don’t know much more than that.”

Kennedy (4-5), which has won the City Section 4-A Division title two consecutive years, opens Valley League play at Cleveland on Friday. The Golden Cougars have won 90 consecutive league games.

Staff Writers Chris J. Parker, Tim Brown, Steven Fleischman, Steve Elling and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.