South Has Always Risen to Top in State Division I Basketball

In 1982, the year California adopted the current format for a state high school basketball tournament, Carson of the L.A. City Section beat Washington of San Francisco for the Division I title.

In 1983, L.A. Crenshaw beat Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland. In 1984, Long Beach Poly beat St. Ignatius of San Francisco. In 1985 and ‘86, Crenshaw beat Logan of Union City and Bishop O’Dowd, respectively. In 1987, Mater Dei of Santa Ana beat Ygnacio Valley of Concord.

Notice any sort of pattern developing here?

If this were the pros, Northern California would be looking for a merger. The major-division boys’ championship belongs to the Southern portion of the state--Fresno on down--in general and the Los Angeles area specifically. Lock, stock and basket.

It’s usually Southern California’s All-Americans against Northern California’s hard-working players. Last year, the key match-up inside was supposed to be LeRon Ellis against Eric Bamberger. That about says it all.

Why the South always seems to rise is no secret.

“If you look at most games, the great athletes will take over at the end,” said Bishop O’Dowd Coach Mike Phelps, who is 0-2 in title games and will play Manual Arts Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. “We really outplayed Crenshaw in 1986, but in the last few minutes they hit about five 18- to 20-footers in a row. That happens a lot. The last two minutes, the great athletes know they’re about to lose and suddenly go into another dimension of play.

“We (Northern California) haven’t won, but I won’t say we haven’t fared well. We lost in overtime in ’83 and by one point in ‘86, and Logan went to the wire and overtime in ’85. We’ve fared very well.

“There’s no doubt the teams in Southern California are more talented. I say that without any question. The schools are bigger, and the competition is more consistent. But that doesn’t always translate into an easy game up here. Teams here might not have any superstars, so they’d be more sound overall. After all, you can’t keep all eight players happy.”

There have been only two blowouts in the series, Long Beach Poly’s 65-45 victory over St. Ignatius, and Mater Dei’s 69-51 victory over Ygnacio Valley. Otherwise, the margins of victory have been 1, 7 in overtime, 10 in overtime, and 1 on a shot by Crenshaw’s Ronald Caldwell with 5 seconds left in 1986.

William Reed of Philadelphia Central, the best 400-meter runner in the country, has dropped out of the April 9 Arcadia Invitational because of continuing injury problems, canceling an expected showdown with Quincy Watts of Woodland Hills Taft.

Watts, the premier 100- and 200-meter runner in the nation, will still face very good fields in both races. Michael Bates of Tucson Amphitheater and Brian Bridgewater of L.A. Washington are the main threats.

Reed has been bothered by a foot problem for several months. There is also a question whether he will be able to compete in the Penn Relays, which will include a contingent from Hawthorne, April 30 in Philadelphia.

Three national indoor track records were set Sunday in New Haven, Conn., at the National Indoor Championships, and one was by the Hawthorne girls’ 4 x 200 relay team. For a few minutes at least.

The Cougars ran 1:41.57 in the first race, with Locke of Los Angeles second in 1:42.60. A few minutes later, however, Tilden of Brooklyn, N.Y., broke the mark again at 1:41.15. All three teams are expected to be at the Arcadia Invitational.

The record in the boys’ 4 x 200 also fell, with Woodson of Washington going 1:28.48. The other national mark went to Keith Holley of Virginia Beach (Va.) Bayside in the triple jump, 52-7 1/2.

Tom Richards of San Marcos of Santa Barbara was a double winner at the meet, taking the pole vault and pentathlon.

Southern California will have its usual strong representation at most of the national all-star basketball games.

Three area players will be in the Dapper Dan game April 8 at Pittsburgh: Chris Mills of Fairfax, Don MacLean of Simi Valley and Darrick Martin from St. Anthony of Long Beach. They will face an East team that has several of the top players in the country, including Alonzo Mourning of Chesapeake, Va.; Billy Owens of Carlisle, Pa.; Chris Jackson of Gulfport, Miss., and Sean Kemp of Elkhart, Ind.

Lineups for the McDonald’s game, to be played April 17 in Albuquerque, N.M., were announced Monday. MacLean, Martin and Mills also made that game.

Crenshaw’s Cornelius Holden, who has signed with Louisville, will play in the April 1 Derby Festival at Louisville, Ky., typically a showcase for players who have signed with the hometown Cardinals.

In what has to be some kind of first--locally, statewide or nationally--John Staggers of Crenshaw has been named City 4-A player of the year without having started a game all season.

Staggers, a 6-4, 190-pounder who was also named MVP of the highly competitive Central League for the second consecutive year, was an outstanding offensive weapon for Coach Willie West. But he started the season in the doghouse and, even though he played his way out, West decided he was a bigger asset off the bench.

Prep Notes

The South Bay Lutheran basketball team finished in the top five all-time in several Southern Section categories this season. The Waves from Inglewood, who averaged 90.2 games a season and 104.5 during Westside League play, scored the second-most points ever in a quarter, 46, on Feb. 10 against Clearview of West Los Angeles, and the fifth-most, 42, on Jan. 21 against L.A. Newbridge, and have the fifth-best single-game scoring mark, 133 against Newbridge. South Bay Lutheran (18-4), which lost to Encino Holy Martyrs in the first round of the Small Schools playoffs, had Brad Ermeling average 22 points and 15 rebounds a game and Maurice Stephens at 20.9 points and a division-high 9.7 assists.

The two Southern California all-star basketball games will be held March 26 at Cerritos College, with most of the area’s top players expected to compete. The girls’ game will begin at 6 p.m. and the boys’ at 8:30. . . . Steve Landress of Reseda Cleveland and Rich Lawson of Canoga Park Chaminade will coach the West, and Tom Hernandez of San Fernando and Mike Plaisance of Van Nuys Village Christian the East in the Daily News all-star football game July 15 at Birmingham High in Van Nuys.