San Diego Teams Move on to Tough L.A. Test

Of the 18 San Diego Section teams in the Southern Regionals, only four are expected to advance past tonight’s opening round.

Beyond that, none of the four coaches are predicting Regional championships. The reason?

“Because this is when you start to play all the tough teams,” said Ron Loneski, Lincoln coach. “They all come from L.A.”

The disparity between San Diego and Los Angeles high school basketball is real. Only two San Diego area boys teams, Oceanside (1984) and Lincoln (1988), have made it past the Southern Regionals since 1961 (the first year listed in the section record book).

There is no such lag in girls’ basketball. In fact, one San Diego team, Point Loma won four State championships in the 1980s.

And this year, Point Loma is considered to have the best chance of making it to the State finals.

Tonight (7:30) the No. 1-seeded Pointers (27-3) face West Torrance (23-5), the Southern Section 4-A runnerup in Division II plays at Point Loma High.

Once guards Claudine Neves and Stacy Wainwright work the ball into the Pointers’ offensive court, they like to get the ball to Tyeast Brown (20.5 point average during season, 27.0 during playoffs) and Ericka Crittenden (13.9 during the season).

The other three teams with a good chance of winning in tonight’s first round are: the Lincoln boys, the Sweetwater boys and the Christian boys. Of those, Sweetwater will have the biggest challenge.

The Red Devils (29-1) received the No. 4 seed in Division I and will be hosts to No. 5 Lynwood (30-2), the Southern Section 5-AA runnerup.

Two players have scored the majority of Sweetwater’s points. Joe McDowell averaged 21.1 and Carlos Campbell 19.8. But during the playoffs John Gilbert has averaged 18.0 points in four games.

Christian (16-11), the No. 2 seed in Division V, should have a easy time getting by St. Margaret’s (21-5) tonight at Granite Hills High (7:30) for one reason--Tony Clark. Clark averaged 43.8 points and led the county in scoring.

Lincoln (22-8) and seeded No. 2 in division III, will have a fight against No. 7 Corona del Mar (19-10), but the Hornets have won 13 in a row and Loneski said his team is still getting better. Lincoln had four players average in double figures through the season, Darryl McMillan, Victor Dean, Ken Garner and John McCartney.