Glendora’s Murray, Peters of Los Altos Named Top Cagers; 2 Coaches Honored

Since the end of the season, there has been no shortage of awards for basketball star Tracy Murray of Glendora High.

The 6-8 senior forward, who shattered numerous single-season and career scoring records in leading the Tartans to the state Division II finals, has been named CIF Southern Section Division II Most Valuable Player and state Player of the Year by Cal-Hi Sports News of Sacramento and made the McDonald’s All-America team.

So it should come as no surprise that Murray received top honors among San Gabriel Valley boys at the Los Angeles Times All-Star Basketball Awards program.

Murray was named boys Player of the Year and 5-11 senior forward Susan Peters of Los Altos was selected girls Player of the Year.

The coaches of the year are Bill Duwe of the Pasadena boys and Mel Sims of the Muir girls.

Murray, Peters, Duwe and Sims received trophies. The nine other players on the boys and girls All-San Gabriel Valley teams received trophies and certificates.

The San Gabriel Valley boys team consists of Shane Bowers of Charter Oak, Jason Ferguson of Workman, Jason Giambi of South Hills, Idris Jones of Pasadena, Carlos Lopez of Rosemead, Tony McGee of Azusa, Pablo Patino of Bishop Amat, Corey Rogers of Nogales, Jeff Von Lutzow of Charter Oak and Murray.

The girls team has Rachel Acuff of Temple City, Jennifer Allen of St. Lucy’s, Karin Banks of Muir, Ingrid Dixson of West Covina, Sachi Ezaki of Covina, Betty Lee of Keppel, Stacey Oughton of Bishop Amat, Lisa Salsman of Muir, Elizabeth Sirchia of Diamond Bar and Peters.

Teams from 11 other Times circulation areas were also honored during the ceremony at the Anaheim Hilton. The speaker was George Yardley, former Stanford and National Basketball Assn. star.

Murray had strung together impressive statistics in earning All-San Gabriel Valley selection as a sophomore and junior. He averaged 23.1 points and 10.4 rebounds a game as a sophomore and 31.3 points and 11 rebounds as a junior.

But he obviously saved his best for this season when he averaged a Southern Section record 44.3 points and 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots.

He finished his brilliant career with 3,053 points to become the first Southern Section boy to surpass the 3,000-point plateau, scored a Southern Section record 1,505 points as a senior and finished in the top 10 in the Southern Section in career scoring average and rebounds.

Murray may have had his most impressive performance in an 89-83 loss to Menlo Atherton in the state Division II final two weeks ago when he scored a state tournament record 64 points. It was his second 64-point game of the season.

He is also among the most recruited players in the nation by Division I colleges. Murray has narrowed his list to UCLA, UNLV, New Mexico, Louisville and Villanova. He has visited New Mexico and Louisville, will visit UCLA this week and has trips scheduled for UNLV and Villanova in April and May.

Peters has grown accustomed to winning awards. It marks the second straight season that she has been named valley Player of the Year.

That places her in select company with former Muir star Pauline Jordan as the only valley players to win the award two years in a row. Jordan is a top player at UNLV.

Unlike Jordan, Peters will not continue her basketball career in college. She will play volleyball--she starred as a setter and earned All-CIF Southern Section honors last season. She has signed to play at USC.

But Peters will be leaving basketball with a trail of success. She made a big impression as a junior, averaging 25.4 points and 11.7 rebounds to lead Los Altos to the 3-A Division finals and state regional semifinals. She was also named 3-A Most Valuable Player that season.

As a senior, Peters averaged 23 points to lead the valley in scoring and 10 rebounds as Los Altos reached the 4-A quarterfinals. She was selected Sierra League Most Valuable Player for the second straight season.

One of the biggest surprises of the 1988-89 season was the success of Duwe’s Pasadena boys team.

Not that the Bulldogs haven’t had a tradition of winning. In the 1970s Pasadena established itself as one of the the perennial powers in the CIF Southern Section.

Only Pasadena had struggled since winning its last Pacific League championship in the 1981-82 season. That is, until the Bulldogs came through with a 24-3 record and reached the 5-A semifinals this season.

It was the best record in Duwe’s 10 years as coach. Pasadena was ranked No. 1 in 5-A most of the regular season and went 10-0 in winning the Pacific League title.

For Sims, it was his first year as girls coach of Muir, and he made his debut with the Mustangs memorable.

Sims, coach of Monrovia High boys the previous two seasons, guided Muir to a 24-5 record, the 4-A Division finals and state Division II regional semifinals.

The only losses for the Mustangs in postseason play were to Katella. Muir lost in overtime by 54-48 in the 4-A title game and 50-43 in the state regional semifinals.

That was considerably better than the Mustangs had fared the previous season when they finished 17-6 and lost in the first round of the 4-A playoffs.

It was also impressive considering that Muir had only two seniors on its 14-player roster.