Will He Talk L.A. Jordan Past No. 1 Crenshaw?

Stefon Davis made his point last Friday as Jordan High School of Los Angeles won the City 3-A basketball title at the Sports Arena, then underscored it afterward.

The 6-foot 3-inch junior forward, a solid favorite to be named 3-A player of the year, scored 29 points in the 56-41 victory over Grant of Van Nuys on swooping dunks, jump shots with a soft touch launched from an impressive vertical leap, and short shots left- and right-handed. Then he talked nearly as good a game as he had just played.

“We’re going to take (the City title) again next year, if I have to take it on my own,” said Davis, an All-City selection as a sophomore who came back to average 22.4 points and 9.4 rebounds during the regular season. “Nobody can stop me. I don’t know why they try. I’m in a world of my own.”

Tonight at 7:30, in the first round of the Southern California Regional Division I playoffs, he will get a look at the world of Crenshaw, No. 1 in the state.

John Mayberry looked like a St. Patrick’s Day poster boy as he coached the Fighting Irish of La Palma Kennedy to the Southern Section 3-A title Saturday at the Sports Arena.

His outfit: Green jacket, white shirt, green tie, green sweater vest, green socks, a green towel that usually rested on his green slacks, and green shoes.

“If you stick me, you’ll probably see green blood,” said Mayberry, who has been at the school as a coach, teacher and counselor since it opened in 1964.

Kennedy has usually been solid under Mayberry but will never be mistaken for a basketball powerhouse. Before this season, in fact, it had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in six of seven previous trips.

Now the Irish are something of a team of destiny, having knocked off top-seeded Saddleback of Santa Ana in the quarterfinals, come from 23 points down midway through the third quarter to beat fourth-seeded Rolling Hills in triple overtime in the semifinals, and gone into another extra period to beat Tustin Saturday for the title. Better yet, they are something of a team with an identity.

“We don’t have a Division I player on the team now,” said Mayberry, whose 22-7 team will play host to Torrey Pines (28-2) of Del Mar in the first round of the Southern California Regional Division II playoffs tonight. “We’ve never had a real big-name kid. A couple of years ago, I was getting letters from college coaches for Stuart Gray and Darren Daye. I didn’t know who they were. I didn’t know there was a Kennedy in the Valley (Granada Hills). At least now people know there’s a Kennedy in the (Southern Section).”

Lou Cvijanovich of Oxnard Santa Clara, one of the greatest coaches in California history and something of a legend in Ventura County, said chances are that he will retire after next season, his 31st at the school.

“Somewhere along the line, all things have to end,” he said.

Cvijanovich, whose Saints reached the 2-A semifinals before losing to eventual champion Banning in overtime, has won nine Southern Section titles in basketball, two in football and one in baseball.

Now working exclusively with basketball, he took a team that began the year with five new starters to a 19-9 record and, for the second straight year, within a win of the title game. This after beginning 7-8 in nonleague competition against such schools as Simi Valley, the 4-A champion; Kennedy of La Palma, the 3-A champion; Santa Barbara, a 4-A semifinalist; St. Anthony of Long Beach, the Camino Real League champion; and Inglewood, a 4-A playoff team.

“Everybody said they knew we would get here (the semifinals),” Cvijanovich said last week. “Which was a first-class lie.”

Santa Clara will have three starters back next season--Art Santana, the third in a line of athletic brothers at the school, Bubba Burrage and John McGill.

The Southern Section’s unwritten rule against entering teams that did not at least reach a division final in the state basketball playoffs cost several local schools a chance to continue their seasons. The San Diego Section was far less demanding, and it showed when the pairings for the Southern California Regionals were released Sunday.

In Division II boys, for example, Oceanside of El Camino and Torrey Pines of Del Mar are both in, even though they were knocked out in the semifinals in San Diego. The Southern Section had two solid teams in Rolling Hills, which lost in triple overtime in the semifinals to the eventual champion, and Palos Verdes, but made no attempt to get either placed. Still, three from the Southern Section did advance, Kennedy of La Palma, Woodbridge of Irvine, and Tustin.

In Division III boys, the seeding committee probably would have taken a last-place league finisher with open arms. Well, maybe not, but only four of the eight spots got filled, which means that each team, all from the Central Section or San Diego, advanced to the semifinals.

Again, the Southern Section chose not to put up two competent teams--La Canada, which went 25-3 and lost in the 2-A quarterfinals to Division II entrant Woodbridge, and Duarte, which had a 26-2 record and a loss to Santa Clara in the 2-A quarterfinals.

Prep Notes

Football star Glyn Milburn of Santa Monica, the Southern Conference co-player of the year, has been named an Amateur Athletic Union-Milky Way All-American, one of eight to be named from around the country. He will be honored in a ceremony March 23 at his school and will join the other winners at a banquet May 3 in Washington. The award is given for athletic and scholastic achievements and community service. . . . Derrel Thomas, a former Dodger who spent 15 seasons in the major leagues, has taken over the baseball team at Leuzinger of Lawndale. Thomas, 37, would like to return to the pros, however, as a manager or a coach. “I’m hoping that maybe after this year someone will offer me a job in professional baseball,” he said. Among his players is second baseman Chuck Foster, nephew of Leuzinger graduate and former major league slugger George Foster.