Finals Week Arrives For Basketball

Expectations run high for a team with a 26-3 record, a 17-game winning streak and a 6-10 All-American center.

Expectations are high for Simi Valley High boys basketball team, which will play for the Southern Section 4-A Division championship Saturday at the Sports Arena.

The Pioneers defeated Santa Ana, 76-61, on Tuesday to advance to the title game for the second time in three seasons.

But is Simi Valley satisfied? Not a chance.

“I still don’t think we’ve played our best basketball, yet our standards are very high,” Coach Bob Hawking said. “A lot of people would love to be playing the way we are. But we haven’t played the perfect game yet.”

Simi Valley struggled in the first half against Santa Ana, but opened up the third quarter with a 15-2 run. “I think that’s really the only time of the game we really played tonight,” said Don MacLean, the Pioneers All-American center.

MacLean, who averaged 33.1 points a game during the regular season, was held to 16 against Santa Ana. Shawn DeLaittre led the Pioneers in scoring with 22 points.

Simi Valley’s opponent in the championship game will be the winner of Wednesday night’s game between Santa Barbara and Capistrano Valley. The Pioneers lost to Muir in the 1986 title game when MacLean and DeLaittre were sophomores.

The Santa Clara High girls team, like Simi Valley, will be making a return trip to the championship game. The Saints won the 1-A championship in 1986. Their opponent Friday night at Cerritos College will be Valley Christian, which won the title last season.

Santa Clara, playing without senior captain Chris Zeits, defeated Banning of Riverside, 56-47, in its semifinal game Tuesday.

The Saints have won 18 games in a row since beginning the season with a 3-6 record. All of Santa Clara’s losses have been to 4-A teams.

Against Banning, Santa Clara surged to a 14-point lead with seven minutes left in the game, then held on.

Tanisha Anderson had 16 points to lead the Saints and Gina Duarte had 10.

“In the first quarter we played at their pace,” Santa Clara Coach Tom McConville said. “After that we were able to slow it down a little. In the third quarter they came out to press and we took advantage of it. We were able to get some layups off the press.”

McConville is hopeful that a similar effort will suffice against Valley Christian, but the loss of Zeits still hurts.

“Chris started two years ago on the championship team,” McConville said. “She was the aggressive muscle on this team.”

Zeits, who led the team in rebounding and was second in scoring, had reconstructive surgery Tuesday for torn knee ligaments. She was injured Saturday with a minute left in Santa Clara’s quarterfinal win over Morro Bay.

Buena, which also has a history of advancing deep into the Southern Section playoffs, will not be making a return trip to the 4-A finals.

The Bulldogs were defeated by top-ranked Morningside, 64-60, in the semifinals on Tuesday. But the loss didn’t diminish Coach Joe Vaughan’s opinion of his team.

“It was a great game,” he said. “All the kids played very well. A break here and a shot there and we’d be playing Friday.”

Buena 24-3 led the half, 36-31, but in the end couldn’t keep up with the inside strength of Morningside’s Lisa Leslie and Shaunda Greene.

“I think 49 of their 64 points came from inside the paint,” Vaughan said. “We knew they were strong, but we hoped we could slow them down.

“Our only losses all year were to big team. We played a great game. They just have some size and some great athletes.”

Vaughan said this season’s Buena team also played a championship level.

“We don’t always judge teams by whether they win a state or CIF title,” Vaughan said. “We’d like to win the championships, but that’s not always possible. This team played at the same level as any of our other teams. We showed we were right there with the best.”