PREPS : Closing Night Was a Real Gym-Dandy

A packed gymnasium. A sea of blue and gold. A sea of red and black. An electric atmosphere. Two well-matched, well-coached basketball teams. And an incredible amount of noise.

If you’ve ever been to a Rolling Hills-Palos Verdes basketball game, you’re familiar with these sights and sounds.

If you haven’t, well, you missed quite a show.

They brought down the curtain on one the South Bay’s greatest high school basketball rivalries Friday night. Unless there is an 11th-hour change in plans to close Miraleste and Palos Verdes in June and consolidate operations at a renamed Rolling Hills High next fall, the 27-year-old series came to an end with Rolling Hills’ 52-43 Ocean League victory over visiting Palos Verdes.

It’s possible the teams could meet one last time in the CIF Division III-AA playoffs, but it’s not likely.

Those who have been involved in the series were already mourning its loss.

“You just don’t replace something like this,” Palos Verdes Coach John Mihaljevich said. “The excitement of two rivals playing each other. It’s been going on for so many years. I don’t know when all this is going to sink in. It’s like a death in the family.”

Said Rolling Hills Coach Cliff Warren: “I can’t believe that it’s the last Rolling Hills-Palos Verdes game ever. It’s been the highlight of my coaching here. The student body feels the same way. It’s a shame to lose something that means so much to both schools. It gives everybody something to rally around and yell about. To lose that is a shame.”

The Rolling Hills student cheering section was prepared to make Friday’s game a special occasion. After Titan guard Chad Heitzler scored the game’s first points on a three-point basket, the students littered the court with toilet paper and an assortment of dead fish.

Then they broke into a chorus of the old standard, “We Smell Dead Fish!” a reference to their rival’s nickname, the Sea Kings.

The gym retained a foul aroma that made the game seem as if it were being played in a cannery. But nobody seemed to mind.

When it was over, many of the Rolling Hills students mobbed the court and joined in celebration. One young man took it upon himself to climb on the rim of the basket and remove the net. It was a party, a grand farewell party.

“It was fun,” said Palos Verdes guard Julius Coleman, a junior who will play for the new Peninsula High next season. “A big crowd; everybody cheering and screaming for you. I’m going to miss it a lot. The games won’t be like this any more.”

Sadly, a golden era has ended. But it was great fun while it lasted.

Over the years, Rolling Hills and Palos Verdes have produced many of the South Bay’s finest players. Here are my all-time teams:

Palos Verdes--Bill Laimbeer, Mark Acres, Jan van Breda Kolff, Brian Jackson, Jim Spillane. Sixth man: Jeff Acres.

Rolling Hills--Jay Bilas, Dave Butler, Doug Gehr, John Hardy, Steve Clover. Sixth man: Roger Hendrix.

After a slow start, Rolling Hills (14-12) has improved dramatically in recent weeks and will enter the CIF Division III-AA playoffs Friday with a four-game winning streak, including victories over highly ranked Mira Costa and Torrance.

“I’m definitely encouraged going into the playoffs,” Warren said. “I think we have a good chance to win it.”

Warren, who has a 13-5 playoff record in his sixth season at Rolling Hills, says the Titans’ improvement is based on several factors.

“We’ve had a little better ball movement and our defense is much better,” he said. “More people are contributing, and in the last three games (before Friday) we shot better. All of those things seemed to happen all at once.”

Hendrix, the team’s 6-foot-6 center, and Heitzler have been Rolling Hills’ leading scorers all season. But recently small forward John Clavadetscher has emerged as a scoring threat, and power forward Larry Strong and reserve center Eddie Bayek, a 6-4 junior, have given the team added rebounding strength.

Banning swingman Jabari Anderson has been nearly unstoppable against most teams, averaging an area-leading 36 points a game. He scored 59 earlier this season against Crenshaw.

Against Carson, though, he’s just another player.

The Colts held Anderson to a season-low four points and shut him out in the second half Wednesday in a 60-43 Pacific League victory at Carson. Last month, Anderson scored 17 against Carson.

What is the Colts’ secret?

“We get in his shirt and don’t let him get the ball,” Carson Coach Rich Masson said. “When he got it, we double-teamed him. His black jersey had a little blue to it.”

Despite his prolific numbers, the 6-3 Anderson is rated no better than the third-best South Bay player in the Southern-Pacific Conference.

Both Masson and recruiting analyst Don Mead consider Gardena forward Robin Kirksey (28 points, 13.6 rebounds) and Narbonne forward D’Mitri Rideout (23 ppg, 13 rpg) better all-around players.

“There’s a good gap between those two and (Anderson),” Mead said. “He needs to learn the other parts of the game.”

Said Masson: “I like Kirksey the most, because he does more things, and Rideout second. Anderson does one thing: he shoots. He’s not a passer and he’s not a rebounder.”

Tuesday’s make-up game between San Pedro and Washington at Gardena High will have a major bearing on the L.A. City 4-A basketball playoffs.

If favored Washington wins, San Pedro will take second to Carson in the Pacific League and play host to Taft of Woodland Hills in the first round of the playoffs Friday. Washington would then flip a coin with Southern League co-champion Crenshaw to decide the top-seeded team for the playoffs.

If San Pedro wins, then the Pirates will have to flip a coin with Pacific League co-champion Carson to determine the fourth-seeded team and the right to play host to Kennedy of Granada Hills in the first round. Western League champion Manual Arts is seeded second, and Northwest Valley champion Cleveland of Reseda is third.

Here are the first-round pairings:

Palisades (Western No. 4) at Washington or Crenshaw (Southern No. 1); Fairfax (Western No. 3) at Granada Hills (Northwest Valley No. 2); Dorsey (Southern No. 3) at Westchester (Western No. 2); Kennedy (Northwest Valley No. 4) at Carson or San Pedro (Pacific No. 1).

Banning (Pacific No. 4) at Cleveland (Northwest Valley No. 1); Narbonne (Pacific No. 3) at Crenshaw or Washington (Southern No. 2); Taft (Northwest Valley No. 3) at San Pedro or Carson (Pacific No. 2); Gardena (Southern No. 4) at Manual Arts (Southern No. 1).

The CIF-Southern Section basketball playoffs will be released today and announced in Monday’s sports section. Under the new format, every team has the right to petition for entry into the playoffs.

In order to fill either 32- or 16-team brackets, depending on the number of teams in a particular division, some teams will have to play qualifying-round games Tuesday to reach Friday’s first round.

Hawthorne football Coach Goy Casillas has resigned in order to pursue an administrative position upon completion of his master’s degree, he said this week. Casillas guided the Cougars to a 36-10-2 record in four seasons and coached such notable players as quarterback Curtis Conway (USC), wide receiver Travis Hannah (USC) and running back Chris Alexander (UCLA).

Hawthorne won the Bay League title and was 10-3 last season, losing to St. Paul, 31-0, in the semifinals of the CIF Division III playoffs.

Morningside is looking for a boys’ tennis coach. Anyone interested should call Athletic Director Carl Franklin at school at (213) 419-2834.