Losers Crash the Playoff 'Party'

By ROB FERNAS

Feb. 15, 1990 12 AM PT

Welcome to the 1990 CIF Southern Section basketball playoffs, otherwise known as “The Party.”

Nearly everyone was invited--a record 285 boys teams, to be exact.

If you weren’t on the guest list, sorry. But no griping, please. These expanded playoffs made it easy to join the fun.

After years of presiding over a somewhat snobbish affair, the Southern Section opened its doors to the downtrodden as well as the elite.

Nowhere was that more evident than Tuesday night at St. Bernard High.

The Vikings, third-place finishers in the Camino Real League, played host to Mayfair High of Lakewood in the first round of the 3-A Division playoffs.

Mayfair brought an 0-22 record into the game.

When the Monsoons left St. Bernard, after a 90-45 loss, they were 0-23.

Were they disappointed? Hardly.

“Hell, this is great,” said Joe Tereschuk, Mayfair’s energetic coach. “We’re really thrilled to come in here and play a quality program like St. Bernard. The CIF gave us the opportunity and we took it.”

There are 33 teams in the 3-A Division. Since only 13 schools, including Mayfair, applied for 17 at-large berths, the Monsoons were in.

Tereschuk wanted the extra game to get his young team playoff experience. Mayfair starts two freshmen and two sophomores, and has only one senior.

Matched against St. Bernard, which starts four players 6-foot-4 or taller, the Monsoons resembled the Little Rascals. Their tallest starter is Joe James, a 6-foot sophomore. Their smallest is point guard John Sales, a 5-4 freshman.

The game, as could be expected, wasn’t much of a contest.

It did provide a few laughs, though. The funniest moment occurred midway through the third quarter when the 5-4 Sales prevented St. Bernard’s center, 6-6 Wyking Jones, from getting off a clean shot by firmly yanking the back of Jones’ jersey. St. Bernard led at the time, 62-26.

“We tried to win, we tried to do our best,” said Mayfair’s James. “It’s like our coach tells us, ‘Go for the jugular vein.’ ”

The Monsoons, to their credit, never quit.

And St. Bernard Coach Jim McClune, to his credit, called off the troops early in the fourth quarter by clearing his bench.

“We haven’t run into a team like that in a long time,” said McClune, whose team plays a demanding schedule. “But I don’t think it will hurt us. Everybody got to play in a playoff game. The motivation should result in two good practices (Wednesday and today).”

Under the circumstances, McClune couldn’t find fault in Mayfair applying for a playoff berth, even with a winless record.

“With a young team like that,” he said, “what do you have to lose?”

Mayfair lost nothing.

But the glamour of the playoffs sure took a beating.

Mayfair wasn’t the only dubious playoff entry.

The South Bay had several less-than-impressive participants.

Granted at-large berths were:

* South Torrance, the seventh-place team from the Ocean League, gained a spot in the 3-AA playoffs with a 6-18 record. The Spartans lost to Estancia, 98-57, Tuesday. It was their first postseason appearance in 12 years.

* North Torrance, which tied for fifth in the Ocean League, brought a 10-15 mark into the 4-A playoffs. The Saxons lost to Kennedy of La Palma, 63-53.

* Mary Star, fourth-place finisher from the six-team Santa Fe League, ended the season 6-15 after losing to Pasadena Poly, 55-44, in the 1-A playoffs.

Not all the Cinderella stories had an unhappy ending.

Redondo, which finished nine games out of first place in the Ocean League and brought a 7-18 record into the 4-A playoffs, reached the second round by beating Temple City, 67-62, Tuesday.

The Sea Hawks, a young team that can use the playoff experience, plays at No. 4-seeded Burroughs of Burbank in the second round Friday night.

“It’s a nice way to end the season,” said Redondo Coach Steve Shaw. “We showed we belong in the playoffs.”

Seven of 11 South Bay schools remaining in the Southern Section basketball playoffs will play home games Friday night.

Two attractive match-ups will take place at Hawthorne and Rolling Hills.

In a 5-AA Division game, Bay League champion Hawthorne (19-8) plays host to Camino Real League champion and No. 4-seeded St. Monica (21-5). Hawthorne beat Santa Ana, 71-55, in the first round, while St. Monica beat Long Beach Jordan, 66-46.

In a 3-AA game, Rolling Hills (16-11) faces No. 4-seeded Western of Anaheim (19-5). The Titans defeated Western in the playoffs two years ago, thanks to a missed layup at the buzzer. Rolling Hills routed Glenn, 100-72, Tuesday behind 35 points from Roger Hendrix, while Western advanced with a 76-56 victory over Sonora.

Another interesting game features Leuzinger (14-9) playing host to Lakewood (16-15) in the 5-AA Division. Leuzinger defeated Camino Real League runner-up St. Anthony, 67-58, Tuesday behind the inside play of forward Adrian McCovey (20 points) and center Frank Willis (19 points, 23 rebounds).

El Segundo (13-13), which received a first-round bye despite placing fourth in the Camino Real League, opens the 2-A playoffs against Crossroads (10-11), which also had a bye, at Santa Monica High. El Segundo should be stronger in the playoffs with the return of 6-4 forward Chris Hansen, who was academically ineligible most of season after starting in the Eagles’ early games.

In other games Friday night, Bishop Montgomery (15-7) plays host to Buena Park (12-12) and Redondo (8-18) visits Burroughs of Burbank (16-6) in the 4-A Division, top-seeded Morningside (23-3) plays visiting Azusa (15-12) in 3-AA, St. Bernard (14-11) travels to Dos Pueblos of Goleta (12-13) in 3-A, Miraleste (13-11) entertains Serra in an all-South Bay 2-A match-up, and Chadwick (17-8) plays at Capistrano Valley Christian (9-15) in 1-A.

The high school career of Torrance sharpshooter Rick Robison ended Tuesday night in typical fashion--with guns blazing.

The 6-2 senior guard, the South Bay’s leading scorer with a 34.7 average, poured in 34 points as the Tartars lost to No. 2-seeded Compton, 99-91, in a 4-AA Division playoff opener at Compton.

Torrance (10-14), which got a game-high 37 points from junior center Joe Zaletel, led by as many as 11 points in the first half but succumbed to a balanced Compton team (19-6) in the second half.

Bishop Montgomery Athletic Director Steve Carroll knows a good bet when he sees one.

In Las Vegas for the three-day weekend, Carroll wagered $100 that the Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas fight would go beyond three rounds.

He doubled his money.

PREP NOTES--Palos Verdes, defending Southern Section 4-A champion, opens the boys soccer playoffs at 3 p.m. Friday against visiting Newbury Park. The second-seeded Sea Kings (25-2-2) stormed to the Bay League title behind forward Doug Kay (26 goals, 13 assists) and a defense headed by goalie Mark Antrobius. Newbury Park (14-8-2) took third in the Marmonte League. Marmonte champion Simi Valley (25-1) is seeded No. 1 and plays host to Ocean League runner-up West Torrance (15-7-1) on Friday. Bay League runner-up Hawthorne (19-2-6) is seeded fourth and plays host to Ocean View of Huntington Beach (14-4-5). . . Six South Bay teams will begin play Friday night in the L.A. City 4-A basketball playoffs. Fourth-seeded Carson (18-8), the Pacific League champion, plays host to Palisades; Pacific runner-up Narbonne (16-8) plays a rematch with visiting Westchester (15-10), which it defeated in December; San Pedro (8-14) plays at top-seeded Manual Arts; Gardena visits third-seeded Cleveland of Reseda, and Banning (11-12) plays at Fairfax.

South Bay’s

Boys Basketball Top 10

Selected by Times Sportswriters

Final Regular Season Rank, School, League: Record

1 Morningside (Ocean): 23-3

2 Carson (Pacific): 18-8

3 Hawthorne (Bay): 18-8

4 Westchester (Western): 15-10

5 Narbonne (Pacific): 16-8

6 Bishop Montgomery (Angelus): 14-7

7 Rolling Hills (Bay): 15-11

8 Leuzinger (Bay): 13-9