SAN DIEGO HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : After six years, Mt. Carmel, Henry Battle Again

When Mt. Carmel and Patrick Henry play tonight at Mira Mesa High (7:30) in the boys’ Division I semifinals it will be their first meeting in six years.

Although that’s a long time, Mt. Carmel Coach John Marincovich didn’t seem to have a problem recalling the details.

“They beat us by one in the semifinals,” he said with a bit of frustration in his voice.

Patrick Henry Coach Fritz Ziegenfuss’ memory wasn’t as sharp.

“Did we play them then?” Ziegenfuss asked. “Maybe we did, but I think it was in the quarters.”

With Patrick Henry (23-4) and Mt. Carmel (22-5) both playing their best basketball of the season, tonight’s game figures to be as close and maybe a bit more memorable.

Marincovich said the game will be decided inside.

“This game is going to be determined by the boards,” he said.

If that’s the case, Mt. Carmel has the size advantage with Shane Knight, 6-foot-9 going against Dan Kotnik (6-4) and John Pike (6-4) inside. Knight pulled down 13 rebounds in Mt. Carmel’s 76-56 quarterfinal victory over Poway.

“We’re very worried about Shane Knight,” Ziegenfuss said.

Marincovich is worried, but not about one particular player.

“They are a very solid club,” he said. “They don’t have one great player, but a lot of good ones. You can’t sag on one guy.”

And although Knight is Mt. Carmel’s marquee player, averaging 20 points a game, the Sundevils can also beat you with other people. As a team they are shooting 57% from the floor and all five starters are hitting better than 50%.

* In the other Division I semifinal, San Diego will attempt to avenge a 56-54 heartbreaker to Sweetwater (27-1), which occurred in the finals of Sweetwater’s tournament.

Sweetwater’s Mendel Nafarette was the hero in that one, hitting a layup at the buzzer.

At that time, San Diego was ranked second in the county and Sweetwater was fifth. The roles are a bit reversed now as Sweetwater is seeded first and San Diego (19-4) fourth.

“We’ve both improved tremendously since then, but that gave us a big mental boost at the time,” Sweetwater Coach David Ybarra said.

Ybarra said his biggest problem should be coping with hot-shooting San Diego forward Clark James, who has scored 32 and 41 points in his two playoff games.

“He’s definitely on a hot streak,” Ybarra said. “He’s going to get his points, but we’re going to make him work.”

Sweetwater is led by the tandem of Joe Campbell and Carlos Campbell, who averaged 21.1 and 19.8 points a game during the regular season.

* The Division I girl’s semifinals will be played before the boys’ games at 5:30. Rancho Buena Vista (21-6) meets Santana (23-4) at Serra and Mt. Carmel (20-5) plays Poway (21-4) at Mira Mesa in the fifth meeting of the teams this season.

Poway has won three of the four meetings, although Mt. Carmel took the last game, 54-48, after being down 25-7 early. The Sundevils, who also met Poway in the finals of their own tournament and the second round of the Kiwanis tournament, lost the three games by a total of 15 points.

“I think both coaches had hoped the fifth game would take place in the finals instead of the semifinals,” Mt. Carmel Coach Peggy Brose said. “It should be an emotional game, because it’s a cross-town rivalry and most of these kids have been playing together since the sixth grade.”

Although Brose said her team has overachieved to reach the semifinals, a fourth loss to Poway would be difficult to take.

“It would be hard to finish the season with six losses and four of those were to one team,” Brose said.

If Mt. Carmel wins, it would be its fifth semifinal trip in the last seven years. The other two years the Sundevils reached the quarterfinals.

* The division III girls’ and boys’ semifinals will also be held tonight at Torrey Pines and San Dieguito High Schools beginning at 5:30.