Washington Throws Manual Arts for Loss

Manual Arts, one of the state’s top-rated boys’ basketball teams and defending City 4-A Division champion, was on a roll going into last Saturday’s championship game of the White Division of the Los Angeles Invitational Shootout against Washington.

The previously undefeated Toilers, who defeated Washington by 23 points earlier this season, started the game having averaged 109 points and having crushed a solid Inglewood Morningside team in the semifinals, 107-81. But in the final at Cal State Los Angeles, Washington upset Manual Arts, 93-84.

“They played a flawless game,” Manual Arts Coach Randolph Simpson said of the Generals. “They have always worried me because they have a group of players who have been together. Now they are seniors with experience, and they know how to win.”

Leading the way for Washington was forward Lamar Smith, who scored 42 points and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. His outside shooting gave Washington an early lead.

“Smith was always getting the big points for us,” Washington’s Coach Kermit Taylor said. “His three-point shooting gave us a big lift.”

Said Simpson: “I have coached against (Smith) throughout his high school career, and that is the best I’ve ever seen him play. By no means to take away from Washington, but we played terrible. We had too many unforced turnovers, and it was like we felt that we could pull the game out at any time, but didn’t.”

Taylor credits Washington’s earlier loss to the Toilers and its 83-46 semifinal victory over La Canada for its play in the championship game.

“We knew that Manual Arts was a good team and that we had to make changes defensively,” said Taylor, whose Generals pressured Manual Arts into 24 turnovers. “Everyone knew that it would take a team effort to win and that our confidence was up because we had just played our best ballgame of the season when we beat La Canada in the semifinals.”

With the victory, Washington (8-1) has to be considered among the City’s top teams, along with Manual Arts, Fremont, Crenshaw and Fairfax. The Generals start an all-senior lineup of point guard Kevin Griffis, off-guard Marlon Taylor, center Barnabas James and forwards Isaac Burton and Smith.

“They have all been together since their sophomore year,” Taylor said. “We are playing well now, but our goal is to peak toward the end of the year.”

Washington will play the winner of the Red Division of the Los Angeles Invitational Shootout, which begins this week with Reseda Cleveland and Carson as the top-seeded teams. The final game is tentatively scheduled Jan. 4 at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

The five-team Gold Coast Artesia Classic is scheduled this week at Artesia High and Cerritos College. Manual Arts opens play on Thursday against Escondido San Pasqual at Artesia High. San Pasqual is led by 6-foot-10 center Eric Meek, who is headed for Duke next fall. The other teams in the modified round-robin tournament, which continues Friday at Cerritos College, are Artesia, The Times’ top-rated Southern Section team, Moreau of Hayward and DeMatha of Hyattsville, Md., a perennial national powerhouse.

Despite its strong lineup of teams, the Gold Coast Classic fails to match the best teams. For instance, Artesia and DeMatha play one another Saturday, but neither will play Manual Arts.

“I’m disappointed because we wanted to play Artesia and DeMatha,” Simpson said. “(Gold Coast officials) came to me and asked us to be the fourth team in the tournament and I said, ‘Sure, we’d love to play national competition.’ Now we are in the tournament and don’t play either one. I don’t think that’s fair. We want to play the best.”

Carson won its eighth City 4-A Division football title last Friday by defeating Wilmington Banning, 37-16, in Coach Gene Vollnogle’s last game. The victory gave Vollnogle his 10th City title, breaking the record he shared with Jim Blewett of Manual Arts.

Vollnogle, who finishes with a 289-74-1 varsity record in 38 years of coaching, will be replaced by his assistants, Jim D’Amore and Marty Blankenship.

Early in his coaching career, Vollnogle was not known for producing passing quarterbacks with his option offenses. But over the past four years, he has had his share of quality signal callers, John Walsh being his latest. Walsh set a state single-season passing record with 4,206 yards.

Walsh, who is scheduled to make college recruiting trips to Miami, Washington, Brigham Young and USC, will join three other former Carson quarterbacks in the collegiate ranks next fall: Perry Klein at California, Fred Gatlin at Nevada and Armin Youngblood at Fresno State.

Prep Notes

Arizona-bound Ray Owes, a 6-8 center, scored 37 points as San Bernardino beat Long Beach Poly, 65-52, to win the Tournament of Champions in Ocean View last Saturday. Los Angeles Loyola lost to Poly, 74-61, in an early round of the tournament, but Toby Bailey, a 6-4 freshman center, scored 27 points. . . . Glendora defeated Cerritos Gahr, 62-50, to win its own tournament, with 6-3 freshman guard Cameron Murray, the brother of UCLA sophomore Tracy Murray, being named most valuable player.

The Times’ top-rated girls’ basketball team, Morningside, defeated Lynwood, 69-61, and won its own tournament. Janet Davis scored 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the final and was named the tournament’s MVP. . . . El Toro quarterback Rob Johnson missed The Times’ football banquet Sunday because he was on a recruiting trip to Notre Dame. Accepting his award as back of the year in Orange County was brother Bret, the former UCLA quarterback who is now at Michigan State. . . . The All-Southern Section football team, sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Foundation and selected by area sports writers, will be announced Friday.