NOTEBOOK : Showdown Looms for Franklin, Eagle Rock

A midseason showdown in boys’ basketball will take place Friday night when Eagle Rock travels to Franklin for a Northeastern League game. Both schools are 5-1 in league play.

Last season, the schools tied for second in the league standings behind Wilson before Eagle Rock beat Franklin, 47-46, in a tiebreaker and advanced to the City Section playoffs.

Eagle Rock lost high-scoring forward Michael Epps to graduation, but the Eagles have rallied this season by spreading the ball around.

“I knew we were capable of being a good team,” Eagle Rock Coach Bill Whiting said. “But we have our work cut out for us the next few games.”

Eagle Rock, which will meet Wilson next Wednesday, has been led by senior point guard John Padilla, who averages 16 points a game and has scored in double figures in every game.

Keeping tabs: Arizona senior Harvey Mason, who scored 28.5 points a game for Crescenta Valley High in 1986, is averaging 5.5 points for the Wildcats (9-3).

Mason, a starting guard, was limited to one point in 19 minutes during the Wildcats’ 73-67 loss to UCLA on Saturday. He scored seven points in 20 minutes in Arizona’s 90-75 victory over USC a week ago.

Sharpshooter: After his 20-point performance last Saturday in an 82-69 loss to Valley, Glendale College forward David Swanson began the week as the Vaqueros’ top scorer with a 17.3-point average.

Swanson, a sophomore from Alemany High, is second on the team in rebounds with 7.4 a game.

Sophomore guard Bruce Heicke and sophomore forward Gary Fowler are averaging 17 and 16.3 points, respectively. Fowler also averages a team-high 8.1 rebounds.

The Vaqueros, who were scheduled to meet Bakersfield on Wednesday, will play Moorpark on Saturday at home.

Making the grade: Washington State senior punter Rob Myers has been selected to the Pacific-10 Conference’s All-Academic team for the second consecutive year.

Myers, a graduate of La Canada High, is a history major with a 3.27 grade-point average.

Ready to go: Glendale College kicker David Bowen and punter Eric Negrey will transfer to San Jose State when the semester ends Jan. 31, Vaquero Coach John Cicuto said.

Bowen made seven of 10 field-goal attempts this season, including two from 46 yards, and was 27 of 34 on extra-point kicks.

Negrey averaged 37.2 yards per punt.

Cicuto also said that running back Doug Dragomer and outside linebacker Mark Reeve will attend Northern Arizona.

Honor roll: Former St. Francis High shortstop Billy Morris will be honored as the San Fernando Valley’s Community College Player of the Year at a dinner sponsored by Cal State Northridge on Feb. 4.

Morris, a sophomore at USC, batted .407 last season for Pierce College in his only JC campaign.

He will be honored--along with high school, college, minor league and major league players of the year--at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel in Woodland Hills.

Two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen was selected major league player of the year.

Diving in: The Occidental College swimming teams opened their Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schedules with some impressive performances last weekend against Whittier and Pomona.

Scott Holdsworth led the men with victories in the 200 freestyle, 200 backstroke and 400 medley relay as Occidental defeated Whittier, 119-34, and lost to Pomona, 122-99.

Leora Boydon was the standout for the Occidental women, winning the 1,000-yard freestyle. The Tiger women lost to Whittier, 107-92, and to Pomona, 171-56.