Morningside High Quickly Adapts to Life Without Lisa : Basketball: With plenty of depth and a balanced attack, the Monarchs are off to a fast start.

Ron Randle has been shouting himself hoarse the past few weeks as the Morningside High girls’ basketball coach.

“I’ll have no voice come Friday,” he said. “I get better quickly, though.”

As well he should. After three weeks of yelling instruction, admonishment and encouragement, Randle has guided the Lady Monarchs to a 5-0 record going into last night’s game against Hanford.

Morningside is currently playing in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions--traditionally one of the premier girls’ tournaments in the nation--which concludes with the championship game Saturday at 8 p.m. at Santa Barbara High.

Expect Randle’s voice to be raw at the end of it, although the Monarchs could find themselves with their second tournament championship of the season.

The host Monarchs swept to the title of the Morningside tournament last week, defeating Lynwood in the championship game, 69-61. Morningside did it with a balanced attack that featured key contributions from several players.

Clearly, Randle is blessed with a gifted group of athletes.

Still, much of the speculation surrounding Morningside this season has focused mostly on what the Monarchs don’t have.

First of all, they no longer have schoolgirl legend Lisa Leslie, the 6-foot-5 prodigy who scored 104 points in a half, set national scoring records and dunked several times in her high school career.

Last season, Leslie became the most sought-after prep female basketball player in the nation since Cheryl Miller. She is now at USC, Miller’s alma mater.

Which is also where longtime Morningside coach Frank Scott is now, as well, after 10 seasons and as many league championships, including three consecutive CIF titles and a pair of Division I state titles in the past two years.

Scott is an assistant to USC Coach Marianne Stanley. Randle, a veteran of seven seasons of co-coaching the Monarchs’ boys team along with Carl Franklin, took over for Scott.

The Morningside boys were either Ocean or Pioneer League champions in six of Randle’s seven seasons.

But Randle is still adjusting to his new duties.

“It’s a different type of challenge,” Randle said. “Basketball is basketball. But I’m still trying to find out how Frank Scott did it.”

Hence the hoarseness.

There have also been adjustments for the players.

“I’m a little more vocal as far as bench decorum than Coach Scott was,” Randle said. “It’s important not to be overbearing, but still get my points across. But it’s tough for the players to make the transition from a quiet person to a screamer.”

One thing the Monarchs don’t have to learn is up-tempo basketball. Randle’s Morningside team is playing intense pressure defense and fast-breaking offense just like Scott’s teams did.

“Quickness, agility and fundamentals,” Randle said in listing qualities that seem inherent in Morningside players.

The Monarchs are winning with a deep roster and a rotation that would be the envy of most coaches.

In the pivot for Morningside is 6-4 center Janet Davis, a talented junior who spent her first two seasons in Leslie’s shadow. She is averaging 18 points, 11 rebounds and six blocked shots per game.

Randle has several choices alongside Davis in the front court, including 5-10 senior forward Akiba Flanagan, who is averaging 8.5 points, nine rebounds and four steals, 5-9 swing forward Tyesha Whiting, defensive specialist Jakeena Bacon, and 6-2 sophomore Tina Thompson, who is averaging 12 points in a reserve role.

The backcourt is just as deep, with guards Sherell Young, a 5-5 junior who is averaging seven points and 11 assists, and senior Princess Murray, who is averaging 10 points, leading the way. The multi-talented Murray has already signed a letter of intent with Loyola Marymount. Randle also has a gifted 5-10 freshman guard in Temika Kirby.

The Monarchs’ deep bench includes guards Melinda Cook and Kalesha Prewitt and forwards Terri McKinney and Angela Collins.

“I’ve got 12 players and I play them all,” Randle said.

Distributing adequate playing time among the Monarchs has been one of Randle’s most difficult tasks.

The chore of trying to replace Leslie has been an easier one, however.

“You can’t replace a person like Lisa Leslie,” Randle said. “No one player can step into the shoes of Lisa Leslie. Instead, we’ve tried to absorb parts of Lisa’s game into different players.”

Hence Davis’ blocks, Flanagan’s rebounds and Thompson’s scoring off the bench.

“It has created an atmosphere where every young lady is anxious to get into the ballgame and do her part,” Randle said.

So Morningside keeps rolling along.

And Randle, who was a reserve guard on the 1973 Morningside team that went 30-1 in Coach Jim Harrick’s final season at the school, keeps shouting.

But he remembers several philosophies that Harrick, now the UCLA coach, left behind.

“There is no ‘I’ in ‘we,’ ” Randle said. “We’re trying to develop the ‘we.’ ”