Morningside and Lynwood Girl Cagers Will Battle It Out for No. 1

Who has the No. 1 girls basketball team in the CIF Southern Section?

Morningside and Lynwood will decide the issue at 8:45 p.m. Friday when they meet for the third time this season in the 4-A Division finals at Cal Poly Pomona.

Nothing has been settled. Morningside defeated Lynwood, 57-50, in the finals of the Artesia Tournament, but Lynwood came back the next week to beat the Lady Monarchs, 63-60, in the Morningside Tournament finals.

Since then, Morningside (29-1) has won 20 straight games, including Tuesday night’s 64-60 semifinal victory over Buena before a crowd of 2,000 at Ventura College.

It was a sweet win for the Lady Monarchs and Coach Frank Scott. Last year, in the same gym, Buena beat Morningside in the 4-A semifinals, 67-56.

It’s tough to beat Buena in Ventura, but Scott says he wasn’t worried, even when the Lady Monarchs fell behind 21-15.

“I felt it was just a matter of time before we put things together,” he said. “This team has a certain air about it. They’re not going to let anyone stop them. Even when we fell behind, you could tell they wanted it.”

Forward Shaunda Greene and center Lisa Leslie finished with 26 and 23 points for Morningside, but both had to overcome rough starts.

Greene, a 6-1 senior, sprained an ankle in the second quarter. Leslie, a 6-4 sophomore who averages 23 points, was scoreless in the first quarter.

“When Greene got hurt, I thought she was finished,” Scott said. “She was out for one play, and then she was ready to come back. She was limping after the game, but she’s going to play (Friday).”

As usual, Scott plans to use his big girls to dominate the inside against Lynwood. He did the same when Morningside won its only other CIF title in 1983 over Buena.

“Lynwood doesn’t match up very well with us,” Scott said. “We have to get the ball inside.”

Lynwood (28-3) will counter will an outside threat, All-American guard Trise Jackson, who signed early with Long Beach State. The 5-5 senior is one of the quickest players in Southern California and presents problems on both offense and defense.

“She’s a threat to steal the ball,” Scott said. “And she shoots well from outside.”

Jackson will match up against Morningside guard Carla Gladden. The senior play-maker averages 11 assists a game and set the CIF single-season (303) and career (816) assist marks this year.

The winner will advance to the Southern California Division I regionals next week.

The Morningside-Lynwood game will be preceded by the 3-A girls basketball final between Bay League champion Palos Verdes and Los Altos at 7.

Palos Verdes, led by 6-4 twins Heather and Heidi Burge, would seem to have an edge based on comparative scores.

Los Altos finished second in the Sierra League behind Rowland, a team Palos Verdes defeated in the quarterfinals on Saturday night, 59-47.

Palos Verdes (23-8) advanced to its first-ever berth in the finals with a 44-40 win over El Toro on Tuesday at Miraleste High. The Sea Kings were led by Heather Burge with 15 points.

Coach Wendell Yoshida deserves much of the credit for Palos Verdes’ fine showing in the playoffs. Because of an illness to Heidi Burge, the Sea Kings have started three sophomores, one freshman and one junior (Heather Burge).

Los Altos (20-3), which upset top-seeded Brea-Olinda in the quarterfinals, defeated Capistrano Valley in the semifinals, 54-46.

Rolling Hills basketball Coach Cliff Warren could do little more than shake his head after his team blew a 24-point third-quarter lead and lost to Kennedy in three overtimes, 83-80, in the CIF 3-A semifinals Tuesday at West Torrance High.

“They just kept coming at us,” he said. “It was about as tough a loss as I’ve ever had.”

After taking a 52-28 lead midway through the third quarter, Rolling Hills was outscored, 30-6, over the next eight minutes as Kennedy tied the game at 58 with 3:48 to play.

Brothers Maurice and Michael Keith led Kennedy’s comeback with 26 and 22 points.

The Keiths and Kennedy forward Wendell Lauderdale grew up in Lynwood but moved to the La Palma area, where Kennedy is located, when their families were displaced by construction of the Century Freeway.

A complaint from coaches concerning the eight-team alignments that go into effect next year in the Bay and Ocean leagues is that it will reduce playoff opportunities for South Bay teams.

That would have been the case this basketball season if the Bay League had competed under its future format.

Of the eight teams that will be in the new league, three won league championships and all but two qualified for the playoffs.

Rolling Hills (Bay), Leuzinger (Pioneer) and Beverly Hills (Ocean) won league titles, while Palos Verdes, Santa Monica and Inglewood reached the playoffs. Hawthorne lost a third-place tie-breaker in the Ocean League and Torrance finished fourth in the Bay League.

In the new Bay League, only three of those teams would have qualified for the playoffs.

Goalie Carolyn Hueth made a season-high 17 saves Tuesday to help West Torrance shut out Capistrano Valley, 3-0, and earn a spot in the CIF 4-A girls soccer finals Friday night at Gahr High in Cerritos.

Second-seeded West (15-4-6) will meet top-seeded Mission Viejo (23-0-2) at 6. Mission Viejo advanced by beating Torrance in penalty kicks after the teams battled to a scoreless tie in regulation and two overtime periods.

This is the second straight season a West soccer team has qualified for a 4-A final. Last year the West boys tied Mater Dei for the title.

Four South Bay wrestlers, two each from Torrance and Redondo, have qualified for the CIF/Reebok State Championships on Friday and Saturday at the University of Pacific in Stockton.

They qualified by finishing among the top six in last weekend’s CIF Masters Meet at Fountain Valley High.

Greg White of Torrance took sixth at 98 pounds, Mike Arai of Torrance took fourth at 105, Toby Harris of Redondo placed third at 112 and Marty Nieves of Redondo finished fourth at 119.

PREP NOTES--Mira Costa’s boys volleyball team, the CIF 4-A runner-up last season, opened the season Tuesday with a 15-6, 15-5, 13-15, 15-10 loss to top-ranked Loyola. The Mustangs, ranked sixth in the preseason coaches poll, return one part-time starter--6-2 setter Jess Boulger--and will rely heavily on players from last year’s Ocean League champion junior varsity team. . . . Three South Bay baseball teams are ranked in the Southern Section preseason top 10. Redondo is No. 1 in 4-A, with Pioneer League rival El Segundo right behind at No. 2. St. Bernard is No. 1 in 2-A. All teams have moved up one division because of the implementation of the first-ever 5-A Division. . . . The Palos Verdes boys soccer team had its 19-game winning streak and season ended on Tuesday with a 2-0 loss to Royal of Simi Valley in the semifinals of the 4-A playoffs. El Segundo lost on penalty kicks in the 3-A semifinals to top-seeded Diamond Bar after the teams played to a 3-3 tie.