JC Notes / Irene Garcia : Cage Coach Stunned by First League Victories

The moment Marymount basketball Coach Jim Masterson had been waiting for all season arrived last week: Marymount finally won a Southern California Athletic Conference game. Actually, the Mariners (6-18, 2-8) won two in a row, in the same week.

“Do you believe we were actually undefeated last week,” Masterson said enthusiastically. “You just don’t know what a great feeling that is. You just don’t know!” The Mariners beat Trade Tech, 77-67, then they pulled out a 91-89 overtime victory over East L.A. Sophomore James Anderson led Marymount in both games. The 6-3 forward scored a game-high 30 points against Trade Tech and 23 against East L.A., which included eight in overtime.

“I think we played better defense,” Masterson said, “and we improved our offense. We shot better from the floor because we were patient.”

Anderson’s 25.7 average puts him third on the state’s scoring list, and teammate Ernie Woods is fourth with 23.2. Marcell Driver of Citrus (26.2) is the leader. Anderson is third in the state in rebounding with an 11.9 average.

If El Camino has barn-burner basketball games in postseason play such as the one against Cerritos on Saturday, first-year Coach Ron McClurkin will look like a senior citizen if the Warriors make it to the state finals in March.

The first time El Camino played Cerritos, the Warriors won in the final seconds by two points. Last Saturday, El Camino lost at the buzzer by one.

“I’ve noticed,” said guard Kevin Mixon, “that (McClurkin) has three gray hairs that were not there at the beginning of the season. I’ve been meaning to tell him.

“I guess it’s because we’re the quiet type of team. We start off kind of going along with the motions, and we come out in the second half with a big roar, like ‘here we come.’ I guess that is bad for a coach, huh?”

Kristy Loesener, El Camino women’s basketball coach, must have felt jinxed Wednesday. Everything went wrong for Loesener and her team.

The Warriors were supposed to play their South Coast Conference game against Trade Tech at 5 p.m. in the main gym, but the referees didn’t show up. Since the men had a game at 7:30, Loesener had to resort to the small, crowded south gym.

“We’re not used to it,” Loesener said. “It’s more confined, and the crowd is right there at the sidelines. We don’t even practice there.”

The game was tense because players on both teams exchanged words and punches. With a little more than two minutes left, the volcano erupted and a bench-clearing brawl that first involved El Camino forward Eve Cravens and Trade Tech’s Stacey Smith broke out. That stopped the game for good and El Camino (14-6, 7-4) lost, 77-67, to the SCC’s top-ranked team.

“We had to wait two hours before starting the game,” Loesener said, “and I guess both teams were just psyched up so a fight erupted. The fans even got into it.”

Golf anyone?

After a five-year absence, El Camino reinstated its golf program this season. The team is inexperienced, but the coach is a veteran who knows about winning.

Al Greenleaf, who taught physical education at El Camino for 30 years before retiring last year, was asked to restart the program. As the Warriors’ golf coach for 25 years, Greenleaf led teams to 17 Metropolitan Conference championships starting in 1957 and three state titles.

The Warriors won 10 consecutive conference titles beginning in 1968 and captured state titles in 1964, 1969 and 1974. El Camino also won Southern California regional titles in 1971, 1974 and 1975.

Greenleaf realizes that it will be a while before his young program has that kind of success.

“It’s a little tough,” he said, “because I lost all those contacts. It took a long time to build a good reputation, and now we’re starting over.

“I have no idea how long it’s going to take for us to get back there. I can just say that it’s going to be fun, but it’s also going to be a little difficult.”