End of Kennedy Girls’ Amazing League Win Streak Became Inevitable

Granada Hills High’s 61-55 victory over Kennedy in a Northwest Valley Conference girls’ basketball opener Monday snapped the Golden Cougars’ league/conference winning streak at 140 games, but Granada Hills Coach Carolyn Gunny was not surprised.

Gunny, who has coached the Highlanders for 13 seasons, said that the end of Kennedy’s streak--which began in 1976--had been past due for a couple of seasons.

“They’ve been on the decline for a few years now, and we just finally caught up with them,” Gunny said about the Golden Cougars, who are 0-4 this season. “They don’t have the team they’ve had in the past and we’ve got a pretty good team.”

Despite Kennedy’s recent wane, Gunny was concerned that her players might let Kennedy’s streak affect their play.

“I told them to play with their heads and not their hearts,” said Gunny, who guided Granada Hills to the City Section 3-A Division title in 1983. “I wanted them to do a little thinking upstairs and not get all emotional about possibly ending the streak.”

Add Kennedy: Craig Raub, who coached the Kennedy girls’ team from 1978-87 and won City 4-A titles in 1981 and ‘87, said that although the Golden Cougars’ streak was listed at 140 games, it might have been longer.

“I could only find records back through the (1976-’77) season,” Raub said. “I think they won two or three league games at the end of the previous season, but I could never prove it.”

A few pointers: The Granada Hills boys’ team (6-1) is averaging 85 points a game, proving that the Highlanders have picked up where they left off last season, despite the loss of All-City Section point guard Jermoine Brantley.

The assumption is half-correct.

Sure, the team is already flying high, but there is no replacement for Brantley. In fact, there is no point guard at all .

“At the present time, we have no point guard,” Coach Bob Johnson said. “There is no designated point guard. The position does not exist. Whoever finds himself with the ball brings it up the floor.”

More often than not, forward Jerry Allen, who at 6-foot-4 is the team’s tallest player, draws the assignment. After carting the ball upcourt, Allen--who is averaging 22 points, 12 rebounds and five assists a game--moves down to his forward position.

So while Allen may not be replacing Brantley, per se, he is doing a pretty fair imitation.

“I’ve never had a player averaging more than he is in those three categories,” Johnson said of Allen. “Even Brantley, because he never had that many rebounds.”

Slopsided: Running and running it up are two different things, and first-year Cleveland Coach Kevin Crider says he does not want to be accused of orchestrating the latter.

In last week’s 106-56 win over Jefferson, Crider had to call off the dogs early--in the first quarter, in fact. As Cleveland jumped to a 24-2 lead, Jefferson managed to cross the half-court line once during that span, Crider said.

“I thought, ‘My gosh, this is ugly,’ ” he said. “I had to call (the press) off. I was yelling to the kids to stop, but they didn’t, so I had to call time. We even went into a zone.”

Cleveland hardly zoned out, though. Cleveland led at one point, 34-6, even though Crider had already started clearing the bench.

Discharged: Chatsworth’s hopes of climbing from last to first place in the West Valley League were dealt a blow when four players left the team last weekend.

Chatsworth Coach Gary Shair, who would not discuss the particulars of the mass defection, said only that the players left “by mutual agreement.”

Included among the players were starting point guard Kay Lee and sixth man John Paul Labrador. Lee and Labrador were averaging 2.5 and 12.5 points a game, respectively, for the Chancellors (2-3), whom many coaches picked as a contender for the league title.

Combined, the four players were averaging nearly 29 points a game.

Chatsworth was 3-16 overall, 0-10 in league play last season.

Doings at the ‘Dale: Palmdale’s basketball team entered the 1990-91 season touted by most coaches as the Golden League favorite. After all, with returning big men Jason Grimes (6-foot-7) and Chris DeGlopper (6-foot-5), the Falcons had size, experience and talent like few other league rivals.

But talent on paper doesn’t always translate to victories. Palmdale fell flat out of the gate, losing to Hart, 79-69, and Golden League rival Saugus, 62-57, in the Saugus Shootout. Coach Garry Phelps worried about his guard play, so necessary, he felt, to take the pressure off his big men.

Faced with adversity, Palmdale responded in a big way. The Falcons won four in a row and swept their way to last weekend’s Crescenta Valley tournament title, beating Ventura, Venice and Beverly Hills. Grimes was named tournament most valuable player after grabbing 15 rebounds in the final and point guard Jason Rose scored 16 points in the title game.

What’s more, the tournament title is believed to be the first for Palmdale. Phelps has been at the school 20 years and said that the Crescenta Valley trophy is the first of its kind for the Falcon trophy case.

“After Saugus, the kids were a little disappointed,” Phelps said. “But we’re coming around now.”

Streak end: Santa Clara’s venerable Lou Cvijanovich is the coach of the two-time defending state champion. His teams had fashioned a 45-game win streak entering the 1990-91 season. Four games into the season, Santa Barbara snapped the streak at 48 with a 63-57 win over the Saints in the final of the Simi Valley tournament.

Cvijanovich’s reaction? Did he heave a chair across the hardwood floor? Did he tear up the Simi Valley locker room with his bare hands? Hardly.

“It never bothered me,” Cvijanovich said of the streak. “The streak never fazed me one bit. I never worried about it. The way I see it, streaks are meant to be broken. It just doesn’t bother me.”

Thumbed: Simi Valley forward Danny Alexander had his shooting hand placed in a cast last week, one week after he fractured his thumb during practice.

Alexander, a 6-foot-5 junior, played in the Simi Valley tournament despite the injury. But a further examination disclosed the fracture and he will miss at least two weeks.

Lock Smith: Hueneme sophomore guard Tony Smith has averaged 20.3 points a game and has a high of 28. He was named to the All-Nordhoff tournament team.

“He’s played really well,” Coach Howard Davis said. “It’s safe to say I’m pretty surprised.”

Early vacation: Camarillo (3-1), which finished second in the Saugus Shootout two weeks ago, will not play again until the Ventura tournament on Dec. 21.

“When I first saw the schedule, I was disappointed,” first-year Coach Mike Prewitt said. “But I guess it will give us two weeks to work on some of the things that we have to work on.”

Add vacation: After an 0-2 start, Burroughs has won three out of the past four games and won the consolation championship of the Crescenta Valley tournament on Saturday with an 89-44 victory over Murphy.

However, Burroughs will have a 10-day layoff until playing Glendale on Dec. 18. “Everybody is still optimistic and has positive vibes,” Coach Ira Sollod said.

T is for turnaround: Sure, it’s early, but Reseda (2-3) has already experienced its share of roller-coaster rides.

On the high side, the Regents pulled off a 72-64 upset at Kennedy on Monday. Earlier in the season, Reseda rallied from a 20-point deficit before falling to Hamilton in double overtime.

And then there was last Friday’s come-from-ahead loss to Wilson.

After Reseda took a four-point lead with less than a minute remaining, Wilson called time out. After huddling, Wilson inbounded the ball with, according to Reseda Coach Jeff Halpern, a distinct advantage.

“They had six guys on the floor,” Halpern said. “We were screaming to the refs, but by the time Wilson got to the other end of the court, the extra guy was off the floor.”

Halpern said a Wilson player scored to pare the lead to two and was fouled in the process. What’s more, the Reseda bench was immediately hit with a technical foul. A technical should have been assessed to Wilson for having an additional player on the floor.

“As soon as the ball went through the basket, the referee turned and nailed us with a T for yelling,” Halpern said.

After the officials decided there had indeed been six Wilson players on the floor, the technical foul against Reseda was waved off, Halpern said. But the tailspin had already begun: Reseda fell, 58-54.

Frustrations: Camp Kilpatrick’s 13-7 loss to Montclair Prep in the Southern Section Division X football title game Friday was particularly frustrating to Camp Kilpatrick Coach Sean Porter.

Not only did the Mustangs fumble away a punt with 2 minutes 10 seconds left, but they also fumbled the ball to Montclair Prep after Rayford Watts’ key interception with 8:32 left.

Porter could only stand and watch as the ball slowly bounced five yards toward him on the sideline and into the hands of Montclair Prep’s Shad Knighton.

Porter turned to an assistant and shook his head. “Man, you don’t know how bad I wanted to kick that thing the other way,” Porter said with a grin.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Kirby Lee, Brian Murphy, John Ortega and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.