PREP WRAPUP : Leslie Leads Morningside to Victory Despite Foul Trouble

The debate rages on. Is Lisa Leslie foul-prone? Or do referees have a tendancy to target Morningside High’s 6-foot-5 center for unnecessary calls?

Leslie again found herself in foul trouble Friday night, drawing her second early in the second quarter against Lynwood in the Southern Section 5-AA girls basketball final at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

As usual, Coach Frank Scott sat Leslie down. And, as usual, the Lady Monarchs struggled without their emotional leader, falling behind at halftime, 27-19.

Fortunately for Morningside, Leslie was able to stay out of foul trouble the rest of the game and spark the Lady Monarchs to a 54-48 come-from-behind victory, giving the Inglewood school its third consecutive CIF major-division crown.

Leslie says she doesn’t believe any team can prevent Morningside (28-3) from winning its second straight State Division I title. The Lady Monarchs expect to be seeded No. 1 for the Division I regionals starting Tuesday.

But she does believe her team could be taken out by an official.

“I think referees are definitely looking for me,” she said. “I have to be conscious of what the refs think. Every game.”

Leslie didn’t think either of her early fouls Friday were warranted.

“I set a pick,” she said. “One ref called the foul on the girl I set a pick on and one called it on me. The other foul was on a clean block. It was kind of ticky-tack again.”

Leslie, who finished with three fouls, had 29 points, 23 rebounds and 12 blocks in one of the most dominating performances of her four-year varsity career.

Still, she says she is being targeted by whistle-happy referees.

“When I reach, that’s a foul,” she said. “But they’ll call a foul off a clean block. If I’m boxing out a girl for a rebound and she falls, they call a foul on me. If I turn around with the ball and elbow a girl who’s right on top of me, they call a foul. I get calls on anything. I think the referees have a tendency to feel sorry for the other girl.”

During Morningside’s unbeaten Ocean League season, the fouls were not a problem. But in the more competitive pre-league tournaments and playoffs, she cannot play as aggressively as she would like.

“You would think you could play a little harder as the competition gets harder,” she said. “But I guess not.

“I’m definitely looking forward to playing in college. Maybe I’ll be able to play a little more aggressively. It’s hard not to play as agressively as I want to. I hold back all the time.”

Leslie said Friday’s victory was the most satisfying of her three Southern Section titles at Morningside. As a sophomore, she played in the shadows of seniors Shaunda Greene and Carla Gladden. Last year, she shared the spotlight with point guard JoJo Witherspoon.

This season, though, the Lady Monarchs are undeniably Leslie’s team.

“I would say out of all of them, this team is much more together,” she said. “The other teams, with Shaunda and Carla and JoJo, had so much talent. If we didn’t play well, it didn’t matter because we were so much better than the other team.

“This team goes nine (players) deep, but if we don’t play together, we can’t really do it. That’s what has happened in some of our games. Then we were able to pull it back together.”

Leslie pulled things together quite nicely Friday night.

Palos Verdes High, avenging an early season loss, successfully defended its CIF Southern Section 4-A soccer title Friday night with a 1-0 victory over top-seeded Simi Valley at Gahr High in Cerritos.

A first-half goal by sophomore forward Brian Durbin and a last-second save on a penalty kick by goaltender Mark Antrobius proved to be the critical plays for the Sea Kings, who had suffered a 3-0 tournament loss to Simi Valley in December.

Palos Verdes (29-2-2), coached by Alan King, became the first team to repeat as CIF boys soccer champion since Santa Barbara won three straight titles from 1975-77. The Sea Kings’ two-year record stands at 62-2-2.

Simi Valley finished the season 28-2.