THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Long-Shots Made Habit of Winning Basketball Division Championships

Maybe James (Buster) Douglas taught everyone a lesson last month when he whipped Mike Tyson for the heavyweight crown in what some have called boxing’s greatest upset.

Similar Buster-isms might be seen in the storybook seasons of three Valley-area basketball teams--one motivated by the death of a player’s father, another that faced an undefeated opponent in the division final and a third that played in its first title game.

All three teams, in a blow for underdogs everywhere, are celebrating division championships after upsets Friday night.

At the Sports Arena, Coach Steve Miller and the North Hollywood High Huskies pulled off the evening’s most unthinkable feat, a 76-71 victory over top-ranked Fremont that clinched the City Section 3-A Division title and the first boys’ basketball championship in the school’s 63-year history.

Senior center Dana Jones delivered a knockout combination with 29 points and an astonishing 29 rebounds.

“I wasn’t intimidated by them at all, I was just out there to win,” the 6-foot-6 Jones said. “We heard all the things people were saying about them, but that just made us play harder.”

Said Miller: “I thought they were ready and juicy to be upset. We had tremendous focus.”

The Huskies were further motivated by the death last month of forward Duane Braxton’s father, a friend of several players. Since Braxton’s death the Huskies (24-3), who earlier suffered two defeats to Grant and another to Reseda, have not lost.

“Seemed like from that day we were concentrating on winning,” Jones said.

At UC Irvine, the Hart girls came from behind to upset powerhouse Buena, 49-45, and post a second consecutive Southern Section 5-A Division title.

Top-seeded Buena, in pursuit of a third Southern Section title in six appearances, entered the game with a 26-0 record and had beaten Hart, 48-30, in December. Using a full-court press, Buena led for most of the game and held a seven-point lead in the third quarter.

But Hart forced six turnovers in the fourth quarter and outscored the Bulldogs, 15-6. Junior forwards Carol Gruhlke (12 points) and Heather Medearis (nine) each emerged from season-long obscurity to post career-high scoring totals.

“When you’re the underdog, it’s so much more terrific,” senior forward Sara Wilson said. “It’s a great feeling to beat the top-seeded team.” In a battle of the unseeded in the Southern Section 1-A Division at Biola University, Faith Baptist pulled off a 65-59 overtime victory over Brethren to claim the first championship in the school’s 26-year history.

Twelve games into Faith Baptist’s season, senior center Dionicio Blanco, averaging a team-high 21.8 points and 11.4 rebounds, was expelled from school. Seemingly no one gave the Contenders, whose starting five included three sophomores and a junior, much of a chance even to make the playoffs.

“You can include me in that,” Coach Stuart Mason said. “But I made sure the kids kept the right mental frame and gave God all the credit. None of them had big egos.”

And the season is not over for North Hollywood, Hart and Faith Baptist. All three will enter the state playoff tournament next week against opponents to be determined.

Rivalry redux: Saugus and Hart, Santa Clarita Valley high school rivals, will play a nonleague baseball game March 13, the teams’ first meeting in three years

Last season, Saugus completed a two-year contract with Santa Clara, leaving the Centurions free to schedule one more nonleague game. Hart, which has played Canyon the past two years, also had one date left to fill. The Indians will not play Canyon this season.

Ground work: First-year Coach Dave Johnson’s first task at Burbank High was to have the infield at Foy Park, the Bulldogs’ home field, resurfaced. The infield grass and dirt, Johnson said, was anything but flat, making for dangerous conditions.

“I said, ‘We won’t play on this,’ ” Johnson said.

The infield has since been resodded and resurfaced.

Said Johnson: “We didn’t start at zero, we started in the red.”

Trophy dash: Nobody was more relieved than Coach Steve Marden when his San Fernando baseball team won the title in last week’s six-team San Fernando tournament. But not for reasons one might expect.

With its 7-2 win over Poly on Thursday, the Tigers finished 3-0-1 and were the lone unbeaten team in the first-year, pool-play event. Boy, that shiny new plaque sure will look nice in the school trophy case . . . Except that Marden never bought a plaque.

Had Poly (2-2) beaten San Fernando, in fact, the coach might have been making a quick trip to an automatic teller for a rapid cash withdrawal.

“The umpires ended up costing us more than we expected,” Marden said, referring to the tournament budget. “It’s a good thing we won, because we only had about $12 left (for awards).”

Different stroke: El Camino Real first baseman Ryan McGuire displayed a peculiar trait over the summer while playing American Legion ball. Although his size (6-2, 190) seemingly would make him a fearsome pull hitter, the left-handed batter’s power alley was to left and left-center field.

In a scrimmage against Reseda at El Camino Real on Tuesday, McGuire showed what he can do when he turns on a pitch. McGuire, a senior who has orally committed to play at UCLA next year, pulled a towering shot over the fence in right as well as several 40-foot trees bordering the field.

According to an eyewitness, the blast traveled 450 to 500 feet and ended up in the swimming pool of a home located across the street from the school.