Mt. Carmel Leaves Cloud Nine to Take on Hart

On the Saturday morning after Mt. Carmel’s girls’ basketball team won what was one of the most memorable San Diego Section playoff finals in recent history, Coach Peggy Brose went to brunch with some friends, then replayed a video tape of the tense 56-55 victory over Santana, again and again.

In that game, the officials ruled that a Santana player was fouled on a layup attempt at the final buzzer. She made the first free throw, but missed the second.

While still floating on cloud nine, Mt. Carmel, seeded fifth in the Southern California Division I Regionals, hits reality today when it travels to Newhall to face fourth-seeded Hart in a first-round game. Mt. Carmel is the only section winner not awarded a home site for the opening round.

“I was a little disappointed,” Brose said, “but knowing there are only six section champs, it’s not that big a surprise.”

Brose doesn’t know much about Hart--”My coaching network doesn’t extend that far,” she said--other than it is the Southern Section champion, it has three more victories (25-4) than Mt. Carmel (22-5) and it is a three-hour drive.

“We have no illusion of winning it,” Brose said. “We just want to go up there and represent San Diego the best we can.”

The San Diego Section basketball championships at Golden Hall went well except for a crowd overload problem that caused ticket sales for the Division I girls’ and boys’ games Friday to be stopped.

Mt. Carmel and Santana played for the girls’ championship at 6 p.m. and Mt. Carmel and Sweetwater followed immediately for the boys’ championship.

“The only negative was the fact that we weren’t able to accommodate about 250 people for the Friday evening session,” said Kendall Webb, the commissioner. “We had to turn people away. Besides that, everything was just great.”

Webb said he has reserved both the San Diego Sports Arena and Golden Hall for next year.

“I will be hearing input from the coaches and the community to decide which would be the best place,” Webb said.

The four sessions at Golden Hall drew 7,201 spectators.

Lincoln guard Kenny Garner has thought of himself as more than just the guy who replaced Joe Temple, a Times All-County pick last season.

“I feel I’m an underrated player in the county,” he said Thursday night after leading Lincoln to an 83-66 victory over USDHS in the section Division III championship game. “I played behind Joe last year and when he left he said I could take his place.”

But that didn’t exactly happen. Last year, Temple averaged 26.1 points per game. This year, Garner had been averaging 13.6.

Then the playoffs came along.

“I talked to Joe last week,” Garner said, “and he told me to turn my game up a notch.”

Garner did just that and scored 26 against USDHS. In the semifinal game against Clairemont, Garner led all scorers with 22 points as Lincoln won, 106-56.

Coaches have noticed Garner’s sudden turnaround.

“He’s really picked it up in the playoffs,” said Hosea Hall, assistant coach. “He’s got his mind in the game.”

El Camino, which won both the Division II basketball and the 2-A football championships had one player who was a member of both teams.

Senior Adam Savona, a 6-1, 190-pound tight end, signed to play football at Azusa Pacific. Although he saw limited playing time on the basketball team, El Camino Coach Ray Johnson said Savona was a key member of the team.

“He’s probably our most inspirational kid,” Johnson said. “He does a lot from the bench to get the team fired up.”

Kim Q. Berkshire and John Geis contributed to this story.