Tarver Has Gone but Balanced Offense Keeps Santa Clara Strong

A year after the glorious Shon Tarver Era brought consecutive Division IV state basketball championships to Santa Clara, the Saints have had little trouble picking up the slack.

They are 16-4 and their only losses have come to highly regarded Mater Dei, Santa Barbara, San Francisco Riordan and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman.

More important, the scoring vacuum left by Tarver, now a shining reserve at UCLA, has been ably filled by a quintet who give Santa Clara one of the region’s most balanced offenses.

Art Barron, Stevie Amar and Isaiah Mustafa each average more than 10 points a game, and Anthony Maestas and Chris Cole are close to double figures.

And while Frontier League defenses can’t key on just one player, Coach Lou Cvijanovich has at his disposal a bunch of happy high school basketball players.

“I think you should diversify things,” Cvijanovich said. “Otherwise it gets pretty boring if everybody has to play defense and only one guy does all the scoring.”

Conscientious objector: Village Christian heads into an early-season Alpha League basketball showdown with first-place Montclair Prep on Friday, but fans attending might not get all they are expecting.

The Crusaders’ 6-foot-7 center John Brown, he of the heady 28 point, 14-rebound averages, will not play because of religious reasons.

Brown is a Seventh-Day Adventist, whose practices forbid playing basketball on the Sabbath, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.

Village Christian Coach Brian Gibson has known all year that such would be the case, and refuses to tip his hand as to how he will compensate for the loss of Brown.

“I’m not giving any tips,” he said. “But we gotta do something. It’s going to take a miraculous feat.”

On the brighter side, Brown will suit up for the rematch at Montclair Prep on Feb. 5.

Mountie helper: Defending Alpha League champion Montclair Prep knew it would be in good position again this year with the return of leading scorers J. T. Billingslea and Chris Sanger, but Coach Howard Abrams says that a large part of this year’s 12-2 record is due to the emergence of a third scorer, junior Jared Sonne.

Sonne, a 6-1 forward, is averaging 10 points a game and has clearly emerged as the team’s third best player.

“It’s really been a pleasant surprise,” Abrams said. “He’s improved a lot.”

Going through the motions: Moorpark guard Ryan Huisenga made six consecutive three-point baskets during a 20-point performance in a 65-41 victory over Oak Park last week.

However, Coach Tim Bednar was still critical of the team’s shot selection.

“After (Huisenga) started making all those three-point shots, I think the team thought they weren’t going to get an opportunity to score any more points,” Bednar said.

So much for the big guy: In a race as tight as this year’s Golden League race, the ankle injury incurred by Palmdale’s 6-5 Chris DeGlopper looked to be a devastating blow to the Falcons’ hopes. DeGlopper, after all, was the team’s leading scorer and second-leading rebounder.

So when Quartz Hill, unbeaten in league play, came to Palmdale last Friday night, the Falcons were give little chance.

With football star Kalonji Watts starting in DeGlopper’s place, Palmdale burst the Rebel balloon with a 67-65 win at the buzzer when, of all people, Watts scored a basket on a goaltending call. Palmdale Coach Garry Phelps said that DeGlopper’s spot was filled admirably by Watts and sophomore Ty Gaines.

What’s more, DeGlopper’s ankle seems to be healing well and Phelps said that it is likely he will be back in the lineup for Friday’s game against Antelope Valley.

Fast lane: Newbury Park point guard Tim Lane has played nearly every minute of the Panthers’ 13 games and has committed only 26 turnovers, an average of two a game.

“That’s because of two things,” Coach Greg Ropes said. “One, I’m sure our stat girls are wrong. And, two, Tim Lane has done an excellent job handling the ball.”

Numbers game: Poor Calabasas High.

Just months after the Coyote football team struggled through a season in which it fielded anywhere from 14 to 16 players, Coach Bill Bellatty and the basketball team have notched a 5-10 record with eight players.

Eight is enough to field a five-man team, but when two players are sidelined with injury, problems can arise. Such was the case in last week’s loss to Santa Paula.

Calabasas started the game with six players, but when leading scorers Greg Waugh and Tommy Hoover fouled out with 2 minutes 30 seconds left, Calabasas was forced to finish up with just four players.

Canoga Park Hoosiers?: When Canoga Park (6-11, 3-4 in Valley Pac-8 play) defeated North Hollywood, the defending City Section 3-A Division champion, 53-52, Friday night, Coach Jeff Davis was euphoric.

North Hollywood had the ball with nine seconds remaining, but couldn’t get a good shot off because of Steve Woodruff’s aggressive defense. The Huskies’ Doc Hazzard took an off-balance shot at the buzzer, but it missed, sending the Hunter crowd into a frenzy.

“When Hazzard missed the shot, the crowd flowed out onto the court and engulfed the team,” Davis said. “It was really something. I felt like Gene Hackman in ‘Hoosiers.’ ”

Raiders encouraged: Despite some shoddy play, particularly its shot selection during waning moments, Channel Islands’ 56-54 loss to Thousand Oaks (12-3, 3-2) in three overtimes Saturday did not discourage the Raiders (12-3, 4-1).

“If we can play that poorly and only lose by two, then we’re doing pretty good,” Coach Don Salado said.

The Raiders remained in a first-place tie with Camarillo (10-3, 4-1) and have won more games this season than the past two seasons combined (nine).

“But we’ll see how good we really are this week,” said Salado, whose team plays host to Royal (11-6, 2-3) today and visits Agoura (8-5, 2-3) on Friday.

Easy money: The Hoover boys’ basketball team cut practice short Monday for the benefit of the girls’ softball team.

Kirt Kohlmeier, who coaches both teams, took the softball team to be part of the audience of the late-night television show Into the Night as a fund-raiser.

“The basketball team practiced at 2 p.m. and we had to be at the studio by four,” Kohlmeier said. “They pay five bucks a head and it’s a pretty good show.

“It was a very long day, but it’s something we do pretty often. The basketball team is going to go in two weeks.”

Time for an end: Burroughs, the two-time defending Foothill League champion, had its 13-game league winning streak snapped Friday night in a 59-49 loss to Alhambra.

The game at Alhambra started an hour late because a junior varsity game went into overtime, but the varsity game also ran a little longer than expected.

Burroughs managed to take a 23-19 halftime lead, but the intermission was extended to 25 minutes because of a homecoming presentation. Burroughs Coach Ira Sollod was not informed of the activities before the game.

“Usually the opposing coach will tell you about it before the game,” Sollod said. “I talked to the team about five minutes and let them go. If I knew about it I would have kept them in longer. We were ready to play and were sitting out there for about 15 minutes.”

After the presentation, the scoreboard clock was moved back to five minutes for the teams to warm up, but officials allowed only a minute to elapse before beginning the third quarter.

“I mentioned it to the refs, but they didn’t do anything because the game was running late,” Sollod said. “I should have made a bigger point about it, but I didn’t. It’s something that definitely has to be corrected.”

Halvorson injured: Rio Mesa forward David Halvorson sustained an ankle injury last week and could miss the remainder of the season.

Halvorson, a 6-3 senior who was averaging eight points and five rebounds a game, had averaged 12 points during the five games preceding the injury.

“He was really coming along,” Coach Steve Wolf said. “It definitely hurts us.”

Add injured: Buena center Joey Young was informed Thursday that he had a stress fracture in a foot, and will not play for two to four weeks.

Young’s loss leaves Buena with eight players, a situation Coach Glen Hannah has learned to live with this season. Earlier, injuries and disciplinary problems left Buena with eight players for nearly three weeks.

“We’ve been here before,” Hannah said. “We have to practice with the junior varsity players, but we’ll deal with it.”

Help Wanted: The Golden League will have at least two new football coaches in the fall, as the search goes on at Palmdale to replace Kent Bothwell, who resigned Dec. 19 to devote full time to the baseball program.

Athletic Director Robert Miner says that applications are being accepted and the process hopes to be finalized by late February, a similar timetable to that at Saugus High, where Coach Dick Flaherty resigned last week.

The Antelope Valley Press has helped churn the rumor mill, reporting last week that former Antelope Valley and Palmdale Coach John Lowry and Antelope Valley Christian Coach Ted Knapp are interested in the position.

Lowry won two Southern Section titles at Antelope Valley in the 1970s and Knapp won the 8-Man Small Schools Division title last fall at Antelope Valley Christian.

Miner said that the Antelope Valley School District has yet to officially open the position.

Staff writers Paige A. Leach, Kirby Lee, Brian Murphy and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.