PREP REVIEW : Neither Brea nor Its Fans Were Sitting Very Pretty

Fans of the Brea-Olinda High School girls’ basketball team were there at the end of their team’s 55-game winning streak in more ways than one.

When Auburn Placer upset the state’s top-ranked team, 54-43, Saturday in the State Division III final, the Lady Cats’ fans were seated in an almost-empty Oakland Coliseum Arena at the ends of the court behind each basket.

The game was the first of six state championships to be decided that day. It started at 9:30 a.m., part of the reason for the empty arena.

Though there were plenty of empty seats ringing center court, Arena administrators would not allow Lady Cat fans to occupy them.

Brea-Olinda Principal Jean Sullivan argued with facility personnel for several minutes. But they explained the seats were purchased by Mater Dei fans, who got a shot at the tickets before everyone else because the Monarchs qualified for the championship game early.

Never mind that Mater Dei did not play until 7 that evening.

The officials’ explanation: The seats behind the baskets are the designated rooter sections for the teams. And officials had problems Friday with people sitting at court side--in other fans’ seats--and wanted to nip that in the bud Saturday, starting with the first game.

Maybe it was best the Lady Cat fans did not have the best vantage point, because what happened on the court was not pretty.

Brea-Olinda had trouble with Placer’s 6-1 center Christa Gannon (22 points) and with a two-three zone that held four starters well below their scoring averages.

Tammy Blackburn is Brea-Olinda’s open-court specialist. The senior guard is usually at one end of the court with a steal and the other end with a jump shot.

She won’t be on the court for a while, however, and not because the Lady Cat season is over. Blackburn, who already has had major surgery earlier in her career to correct a curvature of the spine and a bad left shoulder, will undergo surgery on her right shoulder Wednesday.

“It is a chronic dislocation,” Brea-Olinda Coach Mark Trakh said. “It just keeps coming out. It’s a way of life for her.”

Blackburn will attend San Diego State in the fall on a basketball scholarship.

Mater Dei High School Coach Gary McKnight flew his mother, Bernice, to Oakland to watch the Monarchs’ 62-60 victory over San Francisco Riordan in the State Division I boys’ basketball championship game Saturday night.

Bernice McKnight, 72, is a retired telephone operator living in Las Vegas. It was the first time she had attended a game her son was coaching.

“I call her after every game,” McKnight said. “She’s been running up and down the steps (at the Oakland Coliseum Arena) all night long.”

Riordan’s Dwayne Fontana had this to say before Saturday night’s Division I championship game: “I don’t want to make any predictions about state, but we’re going to Disneyland.”

Riordan went down to defeat instead. Mater Dei forward Charlie Andres held Fontana, who was averaging 20 points a game, to eight points. Fontana made only three of 13 shots.

Bill Walton Jr.?: Andres showed up at the Monarchs’ postgame celebration wearing attire similar to the former UCLA center--a tie-dyed Grateful Dead T-shirt and a blue bandanna tied around his head.

Fore-sport athlete: Mater Dei reserve Dan O’Neil capped his high school basketball career on a winning note, making two free throws with eight seconds left to seal the Monarchs’ victory over Riordan.

But O’Neil, who has accepted a football scholarship at Oregon, will become a four-sport athlete this spring when he competes for the Monarchs’ golf and volleyball teams.

Amy Jalewalia, La Quinta’s guard/forward/center, was the leading scorer in California girls’ basketball last season, averaging just over 32 points a game.

This season, she averaged 33 points a game, good enough for second in the state.

The leading scorer--at 38.6 points a game--was Christina Adams, a 5-7 guard from La Mesa Grossmont High School of the San Diego Section. Michelle Palmisano of Thousand Oaks was third with 29.6 points.

Neither Adams nor Palmisano played on teams that were successful in the playoffs, which was Jalewalia’s goal.

“It was my goal and obviously the team’s goal to win CIF, and we accomplished that goal, so therefore I’m pretty happy.”

The Aztecs defeated West Torrance, 72-62, for the Southern Section Division 4-A championship.

Jalewalia finished her career with the Orange County single-game scoring record--60 points--and had 2,205 career points to make her La Quinta’s all-time leading scorer. She fell 71 points shy of the county girls’ career scoring record, held by Paula Tezak of La Habra (1980-84).

Jalewalia will attend UCLA in the fall.

Administrators at San Clemente High will honor Tony Sisca by dedicating the school’s baseball field in his name on Wednesday before its South Coast League opener against Capistrano Valley.

The ceremony is at 2:15 p.m.; the game at 3:15.

Sisca was the Tritons’ first baseball coach and has taught at the school for more than 30 years--from the time it was Old Capistrano High.

Sisca, who coached from 1959-69, guided Old Capistrano to a 17-3 record in ’63 and San Clemente to a 19-1 record and the Orange League title in ’64.

He retired from coaching five years later to focus on teaching and to become chairman of the social studies department.

“I had coached something for 17 years and I decided it was time to make a change,” he said.

Sisca teaches advanced courses in American Government and International Relations.

“He is considered among his peers and by educators here as one of the outstanding educators in the district,” Principal Jim Krembas said. “And we thought it seemed appropriate as we celebrated (the school’s) 25th anniversary to honor Tony.”

It was Sisca’s former players who called the school and suggested the diamond be named Anthony Sisca Field, Krembas said.