NOTEBOOK : La Canada to Face Century in Basketball

The Southern Section basketball playoffs, which began with qualifying rounds Tuesday, move into regular first-round games Friday and Saturday.

La Canada High, which won a share of its fourth consecutive Rio Hondo League championship, is the second-seeded team in the 3-A Division. The Spartans will play host to Santa Ana Century on Friday night.

“They’re a real young team,” La Canada Coach Tom Hofman said. “They’ll probably be a little inexperienced and in a can’t-lose situation.”

Jeff Lord, averaging 16.9 points a game, leads the La Canada offense.

Other boys’ games Friday include:

Apple Valley Christian or Heritage Christian at Ribet Academy (Division 5); Schurr at Glendale (1-AA); St. Francis at Santa Paula (3-A); and Crescenta Valley at Valencia (2-A).

In girls’ games Saturday: Pacific League champion Glendale plays host to either Santa Ana or El Rancho in Division 1-AA; San Fernando League champion Flintridge Sacred Heart plays host to Tehachapi (4-AA); Heritage League champion Ribet Academy plays host to either Highland Hall or Coastal Christian (5-A); Rio Hondo League champion La Canada plays host to San Luis Obispo or Notre Dame (3-A); and Crescenta Valley plays at Valencia (2-A).

More playoffs: Northwest League champion Marshall and Eagle Rock, which finished second in the Northeastern League, open play in the boys’ City Section 3-A playoffs Friday.

Marshall (17-6) is seeded fourth in the 3-A and will play host to North Hollywood.

Eagle Rock (14-10) will play at Reseda.

“We haven’t been tested in a while, but we’ve been playing well,” said Marshall Coach Henfred Brard, whose team has won 11 consecutive games since losing its league opener to Franklin.

Senior Jahmin Assa is averaging 17.2 points and 14.8 rebounds for the Barristers. Guard Thanh Dip is averaging 14.8 points and four assists.

Hotbed: Long recognized as a productive region at the youth soccer level, the Glendale area is quickly gaining a reputation for excellence at the high school level as four area teams qualified for the Southern Section playoffs.

In boys’ soccer, Rio Hondo League champion La Canada (16-1-3) will play host to Glenn in a 1-A match today at La Canada.

In the 2-A division, San Fernando League co-champion St. Francis (10-5-2) plays host to Santa Maria (13-4-1) on Friday, and Hoover (6-7-3), which finished third in the Pacific League, will play at St. Paul (13-5-2).

In girls’ soccer, Crescenta Valley (18-0)--which played as an independent and finished the regular season with 12 shutouts--plays Louisville (16-4-2) in a 3-A match Friday at Louisville.

Gym dandy: An international gymnastics meet, featuring Elite-level participants, will be held March 9-10 at Glendale High.

The Golden State International Club Challenge is being hosted by the Glendale-based Verdugo Gymnastics club and will include competitors from Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, England, Wales, Canada and the United States.

The competition features qualifying rounds on the first day and finals on the second.

In the hunt: The Occidental basketball team entered Wednesday’s game at La Verne tied with the Leopards for the lead in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Occidental was 14-8 overall and 7-2 in SCIAC play. La Verne was 15-7.

The La Verne game is the first of three consecutive season-ending SCIAC contests the Tigers will play on the road.

Occidental, which has not won a conference championship since 1983, plays a nonconference game Saturday at home against Cal Lutheran before concluding the regular season at Redlands and Claremont-Mudd next week.

Sandy Brown, a junior transfer from Cal State Northridge, is averaging 19.2 points a game for the Tigers in conference play.

Hammer time: Occidental’s Brady Dargan did not waste any time qualifying for the NCAA Division III track and field championships.

Last weekend at San Diego State, in the Tigers’ first meet, Dargan won the hammer with a throw of 168 feet 5 inches.

Dargan also is expected to qualify for nationals in the discus and shotput.