STATWATCH : Balanced Scoring Is Common Denominator of Playoff-Bound East Valley Teams

The key to making the City Section 3-A Division playoffs is balanced scoring. The three East Valley League teams that qualified--North Hollywood, Grant and Poly--are the only league teams with at least three players averaging 10.9 or more points.

North Hollywood’s scoring leaders are All-City forward Dominic Nappi (with a league-leading 18.2 scoring average), Danny Klein (12.3) and Alan Breslauer (10.9). The Huskies also have three players with scoring averages between 8.6 and 9.1.

“That’s what I thought would happen, that in any one game someone could get 20 points and it could be any of the five starters,” North Hollywood Coach Steve Miller said. “That way, our opponents couldn’t stop just one player.”

Bobby Ntoya (13.3), Scott Cooper (12.9) and Nick Lymberopoulos (10.9) provide Poly with balanced scoring.

Grant is led by Danny Enowitz (17.7) and Sean Watkins (12.4). The Lancers’ accomplishment deserves an asterisk because the third player averaging in double figures, Nate Conner (13.5) has played in only four games.

Cooper scored 30 points against Sylmar on Thursday to become the third player to lead Poly in scoring in its past three games. In the Parrots’ 80-56 win over Verdugo Hills, Ntoya scored a team-high 23 points, and, in a 62-53 defeat to Grant, Lymberopoulos scored 16.

Van Nuys, which finished fourth in the league, almost had three players with a 10.9 average or better. The Wolves’ Alonzo Galloway averaged 16.9 points, Jimmy Chriss averaged 11.7 and Leonard Weems averaged 10.0. Van Nuys scored 102 points in its season opener, but the Wolves’ managed only 101 points in their last two league games, both losses.

Streaks: Cleveland has won 14 consecutive games since a loss to Fairfax in December, outscoring opponents, 84.4 to 58.4, in the stretch, an average margin of 25.9 points. The team’s narrowest victory was by four points.

Bell-Jeff (16-6) and Montclair Prep (15-6) enter this week’s Southern Section 1-A Division playoffs with nine-game winning streaks. Bell-Jeff, the Santa Fe League co-champion, has an average victory margin of 20.1 points during the streak. Juniors Nick Sanderson (18.7 points per game) and Greg Dunn (16.3), and senior Henry Polee (15.2) have led Bell-Jeff during the streak. During the streak, they have scored in double figures 26 of 27 times.

Alpha League co-champion Montclair Prep has won its past nine games by an average of 21.4 points.

Royal’s 72-58 loss to Camarillo left the Highlanders’ final record at 11-12. It was the 15th consecutive season in which they failed to finish above .500. Royal, which was 1-19 last season, finished at .500 (11-11) in 1986. Their last winning season was 1973, when they were 13-10.

Birmingham has won 5 in a row. The Braves’ 88-57 win over San Fernando snapped the Tigers’ 10-game winning streak.

North Hollywood has won 6 games in a row and 10 of its past 11, including a victory over Grant last week that broke the Lancers’ 11-game winning streak. Grant (17-3) still has a streak going--the Lancers, who lost twice in the North Hollywood tournament, have yet to lose anywhere but at North Hollywood.

Championships: For the first time in its 25-year history, L. A. Baptist won league titles in all three divisions of boys’ basketball. The Knights tied Montclair Prep for the Alpha League varsity title with a 9-1 record and won the junior varsity and frosh-soph divisions outright. The three teams had a combined league record of 26-2.

Assists: Mike Cassidy of St. Genevieve, who averaged 9.5 assists a game, had 78 assists in the Valiants’ final 6 contests, including a school-record 23 against Harvard.

Numbers: In three Delphic League games, Buckley’s Laura Kirkpatrick averaged 38.7 points, 20.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 9.3 steals. In Saturday’s 56-41 victory over Faith Baptist in a league tiebreaker, she scored 38 points and grabbed 23 rebounds.

The Newbury Park boys finished 6-16 because they consistently let the close ones get away. The Panthers’ average point differential was minus-3.5.

Birmingham’s Greg Maxwell, who is averaging 15.6 points a game, has scored in double figures in 14 consecutive games and 17 of 18. Teammate Jason Moore has scored in double figures in 7 consecutive games and is averaging 12.1 points in league and 10.8 points overall.

Guard Rick Garrick was Chatsworth’s leading scorer with a 13.9 game average.

BASKETBALL TOP 10Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 1 Simi Valley Marmonte 22-3 2 2 Cleveland Valley 18-2 3 3 Kennedy Valley 16-4 4 4 Taft Valley 14-6 5 6 North Hollywood East Valley 16-4 6 7 Grant East Valley 17-3 7 5 San Fernando Northwest 15-5 8 10 Birmingham Northwest 11-8 9 8 Notre Dame Del Rey 13-9 10 9 Granada Hills Northwest 11-6

NR--Not ranked.

Through Tuesday’s games.