Banner Season Gives Title to Thousand Oaks

Thousand Oaks High, which had not won a Marmonte League basketball title in 14 years, came into a Simi Valley gymnasium Friday in which championship banners are a dominant theme of the decor.

Simi Valley has won five consecutive league titles and six in the past seven years. It also won the Southern Section 4-A Division title in 1988. The Lancers, well they’ve looked really nice in their green-and-white uniforms over the years but have not won a league title since 1976-77 and had not won at Simi Valley since 1984.

Until now. Thousand Oaks all but wiped its sweaty brow with one of Simi Valley’s banners Friday, handing the woeful Pioneers a 77-42 loss. The Lancers were even talking of cutting the nets down afterward.

The victory assured Thousand Oaks (20-4 overall, 11-3 in league play) a tie for the league title with Channel Islands (19-5, 11-3).

“If you know anything about irony, you gotta love this,” Thousand Oaks Coach Ed Chevalier said. “We talked about coming in here, where Simi Valley has such an incredible tradition, and winning the league title on their floor.”

And the Lancers, who have won 20 games in a season only one other time, backed it up. Thousand Oaks never trailed and, with a 34-18 lead, turned the game into a rout at halftime.

“We had a big-time response to a big game,” Chevalier said.

Chris Loll led the way with a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds. Scott Peterson scored 12 points, Shane Graham added 10 points and six rebounds, and Brian Capella had seven steals.

Aside from the celebrating Lancers, things were pretty quiet around Simi Valley. The Pioneers (9-16, 4-10) kept quiet about Coach Dean Bradshaw’s one-game suspension, and apparently there is not much to say about being in sixth place, either.

The Pioneers hit only 16 of 50 field-goal attempts (32%), and Thousand Oaks finished with 18 steals.