SportsScope : 16 Teams From Valley Will Compete in L.A. Games Basketball Competition

The San Gabriel Valley will be well-represented when high school players from throughout the Southland compete in the 22nd L.A. Games Men’s Basketball Competition that starts Saturday at sites throughout Los Angeles.

Sixteen teams from the valley will compete in the 128-team tournament.

Among the valley’s top teams are Pasadena, Muir, Glendora and Pomona.

In first-round games Saturday, Glendora takes on South Gate at 10 a.m. at El Camino College, Pasadena meets Bell Gardens at 2 p.m. at Hamilton High, Muir faces Newbury Park at 3 at Hamilton and Pomona plays Burbank at 4 at Dorsey High.

It will be a new-look Glendora team that faces South Gate. The Tartans will be playing without All-American forward Tracy Murray, who graduated after averaging a state-record 44.3 points a game last season.

But Glendora, which finished 31-3 and reached the state Division II final last season, has seven of its top nine players returning, including forwards J. J. O’Laughlin (6-3) and Jay Zuhlke (6-5) and guard Chris Walker (5-10). O’Laughlin averaged 9.1 points and five rebounds.

Pomona figures to be strong with 6-5 forward Johnny McWilliams, who averaged 24.2 points and 12.2 rebounds as a sophomore and earned All-Southern Section honors. The Red Devils finished at 16-10 and reached the second round of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs.

Pasadena is coming off an outstanding season, finishing 24-3 and reaching the Southern Section 5-A semifinals. The Bulldogs appear talented again with 6-2 swing man Don Mitchell, who averaged 13.6 points last season.

Muir posted one of its worst records in recent years at 10-12 and missed the Southern Section playoffs. But the Mustangs, who started three sophomores, are expected to rebound behind returning junior forwards LaDay Smith (6-5) and Erid Scott (6-6).

Other first-round games Saturday include Ganesha at L.A. Jordan at 9 a.m., La Salle vs. Carson at 9 at El Camino, Blair at Hamilton at 9, Keppel vs. Monroe at 10 at Fremont High, Diamond Bar vs. Locke at 11 at El Camino, Alhambra vs. Chadwick at 11 at Hamilton, Duarte vs. Verbum Dei at 11 at El Camino, Bosco Tech vs. Pius X at noon at Jordan, Walnut vs. Crespi at 1 p.m. at Banning High, Temple City vs. Miraleste at 2 at Crenshaw High, and Charter Oak vs. Grant at 3 and South Pasadena vs. Santa Barbara at 4 at Jordan.

The favorites are Manual Arts, Saddleback, Mater Dei and Cleveland. Manual Arts is the top seed.

Preliminary rounds will be played Saturday and Sunday. Survivors will square off June 24 and 25 at El Camino.

After struggling last season, the Cal State Los Angeles men’s tennis team has added a top junior college performer for next year.

The Golden Eagles, who finished 0-10 in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. and 3-17 overall, have signed Ed Peregrino from Saddleback College to a letter of intent.

Peregrino, who will be a junior, won the state community college men’s singles championship and was ranked No. 1 in the state in singles and doubles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn..

“I’ve been talking to Ed about coming here for about a year and a half,” Golden Eagle Coach Ed Charles said. “I think he can be a strong, strong player for us--perhaps even our No. 1 player next spring.”

Diane Looker, who coached Citrus College of Glendora to a 19-7 record and the Foothill Conference championship in women’s basketball last season, has been named women’s basketball coach at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.

Looker, a standout as a player at Cal Poly Pomona from 1980-84, was an assistant at Citrus two seasons ago and was coach of Rowland High in 1985. She was also selected Foothill Conference Coach of the Year last season.

She will take over a Mt. Sac team that has struggled to records of 12-18 in the 1987-88 season and 10-19 last season. But Looker has high hopes for the program.

“It’s going to improve,” Looker said. “In the long run, it has the potential to win league and do well in state competition.”

Looker expects to improve the Mounties through recruiting.

Former Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Doug Barnett has been named women’s softball coach at Azusa Pacific University.

Barnett, 29, replaces Laura Wood, who resigned to pursue other opportunities in her home state of Washington. With Wood as coach, the Cougars posted a 64-57 record the last four seasons and were 16-18 this year.

Barnett, who has been an assistant football coach at Azusa Pacific and will remain in that position, competed in football and track for the Cougars in 1978-82. He played for the Rams in 1982 and 1983.

Ten high schools from the San Gabriel Valley have been selected as winners of 1988-89 CIF Southern Section sportsmanship awards.

The schools are Maranatha of Sierra Madre, Glendora, Calvary Baptist of La Verne, San Gabriel, San Gabriel Mission, El Monte, Muir of Pasadena, Monrovia, Baldwin Park and Walnut.

Sixty-one schools were honored.