PREPS : Rolling Hills Is Off to an 0-3 Start--Have the Mighty Fallen?

It appears the party is over for the Rolling Hills High basketball team.

After a three-year reign as Bay League champion, the Titans are off to an 0-3 start following a 68-65 loss Tuesday at Inglewood.

“It doesn’t look like we can contend for the championship right now,” Coach Cliff Warren said. “It would be too hard to win a lot of games in a row. Someone always starts winning. In the past, it’s always been us.”

Not this year.

Tuesday’s defeat marked the first time in five seasons under Warren that the Titans have lost three consecutive games. They entered the season with a 41-5 league record under Warren.

Rolling Hills (8-7 overall) has already matched the most losses suffered by a Warren Titan team in the regular season: 21-7 in 1986.

What’s the problem?

Warren blames poor defense and rebounding.

“The biggest reason is defense,” he said. “We’re not playing aggressive enough. And we’re not rebounding. We don’t get a lot of second shots.

“We have to take our weakest points and move them up a notch. We have to play strong and hard. We’re trying not to get discouraged. I’m an optimist. I don’t get discouraged easily, but this is testing me.”

Looking on the bright side, Warren said the first high school team he coached, in 1963 at El Segundo, also lost three straight games but went on to capture the CIF-Southern Section 2-A championship.

Rolling Hills will try to end its skid tonight, but it won’t be easy. The Titans play at Bay League co-leader Hawthorne, which has won 10 of its last 13 games and thrives on aggressive, full-court defense.

The lone bright spot in Rolling Hills’ loss Tuesday was the shooting performance of guard Steve Clover, who set the CIF-Southern Section record for career three-point shots.

Clover, a 6-foot-4 senior headed for Pepperdine, sank five three-pointers against Inglewood to give him 228 in his three-year varsity career, eclipsing the record of 224 set by Glendora’s Tracy Murray, now a freshman at UCLA.

Clover is also on a pace to break Murray’s single-season record of 125 three-pointers, set last year. He has 80 in 15 games.

Is there a more balanced basketball team in the area than Morningside?

Entering this week, four Monarchs were averaging double figures in points: guards Tyrone Paul (16.7) and Martel Bland (14.7), center Jeff Crowe (14) and forward Arthur Savage (11.4).

Bland, a 6-4 senior, has been the biggest surprise.

Expected to be the team’s sixth man, he moved into the starting lineup a week before the season when Daniel Taylor suffered a broken index finger in a scrimmage.

Bland has made the most of the opportunity, spearheading the Monarchs’ press and becoming their best outside shooter. He leads the team in steals, averaging six a game, and he set a school record with seven three-point shots against Brea-Olinda in the Tournament of Champions.

“Without a doubt, he’s our best overall athlete,” Co-Coach Ron Randle said. “He combines defense, athletic ability and a great knowledge of the game.”

Bland’s greatest strength is defense. He draws the opposing team’s top offensive player and has shut down several explosive shooters, including Rolling Hills’ Clover, whom he held to a season-low eight points in the semifinals of the Pacific Shores Tournament.

Said Randle: “He gives us that extra dimension that we need to be a very good basketball team.”

First place in the Ocean League basketball race will be up for grabs at 7:30 Friday night when Mira Costa plays host to Morningside. The co-leaders have 3-0 league records.

“It’s the most exciting game in the Ocean League, at least in the first half (of league play),” Morningside’s Randle said. “I think our kids are building for it. Mira Costa is confident, so we’ll have to come out and play good basketball.”

A key matchup figures to be Mira Costa’s 6-8 tandem of Chris Davis and Mike Ashenfelter against Morningside’s front line of 6-7 Crowe, 6-6 Savage and 6-5 Paul. If Mira Costa can’t get the ball inside to its big people, it could be a long night because of Morningside’s quickness and tough defense.

The third quarter has become a bonanza for Mira Costa in league play. Through three games, the Mustangs have outscored opponents, 43-19, in the third quarter, including 17-7 Tuesday in a 60-46 win over Centennial.

Coach Glenn Marx must be doing something right at halftime.

By the time Frankie White is a senior, Miraleste basketball Coach Todd Mirsky believes the sophomore will be the best point guard in the school’s history.

“He handles the ball so well,” Mirsky said. “He still needs work on his judgment, but he’s fearless. He’ll penetrate against anyone. When he gets a little bigger and stronger, he’s going to be something.”

The 5-11 White, son of former Harbor College basketball Coach Jim White, isn’t bad right now. He ranks second in the South Bay in assists, averaging 9.4 a game.

PREP NOTES--West Torrance High cross-country Coach Greg Houlgate, a former distance running standout at Bishop Montgomery, is entered in the 12th annual Redondo Beach Super Bowl Sunday 10-K Run on Jan. 28. Houlgate first attracted attention by setting the national 10-K record for 13-year-olds (33:59), which has since been broken. He is training for the 1992 U.S. Olympic team . . . Two South Bay preps have been added to the field for the 31st Sunkist Invitational Indoor track meet on Jan. 19 at the Sports Arena. Maria Maldonado of Leuzinger will compete in the girls’ mile and Torrance’s Israel Pose, a junior who placed 29th in the Kinney Western Regional cross-country championships, will run the boys’ two mile . . . Miraleste’s basketball team, which sank only three three-point shots in 22 games last season, has made 16 in 14 games, led by forward Jeff Goldstein with 12. The Marauders improved to 3-0 in the Alpha League and 7-7 overall Tuesday with a 54-37 win over L.A. Baptist . . . Verbum Dei beat St. Bernard, 76-61, Tuesday night in a Camino Real League basketball game at Compton College to avenge a 74-63 loss suffered at the hands of the Vikings last month in the Las Vegas Valley Tournament.

3- POINT SHOT LEADERS Career leaders in CIF-Southern Section

No. Player, School Year 228 Steve Clover, Rolling Hills 1988-90 224 Tracy Murray, Glendora 1987-89 177 Jason Hart, St. Paul 1987-89 150 Carlos Lopez, Rosemead 1988-89 124 Mark Tesar, Rolling Hills 1988-89