THE HIGH SCHOOLS / JOHN ORTEGA : Reseda’s Halpern Hoping to Settle a Couple of Scores

Reseda High Coach Jeff Halpern hopes that snapping one losing streak will give him a chance at breaking another when the City Section 3-A Division boys’ basketball playoffs resume Wednesday.

Reseda (13-8), which defeated Eagle Rock, 68-56, in a first-round game Friday, will play third-seeded Hamilton in a quarterfinal game Wednesday.

If the Regents defeat the Yankees, which they have yet to do in three tries during Halpern’s three-year tenure, and Grant beats North Hollywood in another quarterfinal, Halpern would get another opportunity to upend the Lancers and Coach Howie Levine, which he also has yet to accomplish.

Halpern, who coached Van Nuys to a 21-3 record during the 1984-85 season, and guided Birmingham to a 22-3 mark in the 1986-87 campaign, is 0-8 against Levine-coached Grant teams.

“I beat (Grant) once when I was at Van Nuys,” Halpern said. “But that’s when Bill McKee was coaching them. . . . I’d love to get another shot at them, but first we’ve got to beat Hamilton and that won’t be easy.”

The Regents lost to Hamilton in double overtime earlier this season. Last season they blew an eight-point lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter in a nonleague game. The season before that, Reseda came from 20 points down against the Yankees, only to lose on a shot at the buzzer.

“They’re the third-ranked team in the playoffs,” Halpern said, “so they’re obviously a good team. But we’ve come close to them before.”

Deja vu: Saugus is unranked and will be going against San Bernardino Cajon, the No. 2-seeded team in the Southern Section Division I-A playoffs, on Tuesday, but Centurion Coach John Clark is not panicking.

In fact, he’s cautiously optimistic.

After examining Saugus’ eight-year run under Clark, one can understand why.

The Centurions advanced to the semifinals of the 2-A Division playoffs in 1984 and won the 3-A title in 1987. And each year, they won a wild-card game, then defeated a league champion on the road in the first round of the playoffs.

Saugus (18-9) beat Hueneme, 66-52, in a playoff qualifying game Tuesday, before upsetting Northern League champion Arroyo Grande, 59-50, in a first-round game Friday.

“The similarities are there, aren’t they?,” Clark said. “I’m aware of it and I will bring it up with the kids on Tuesday. I’ll point out that there have been times in the past where we’ve come up against what appear to be absolutely dominant teams on paper, but we’ve beat them.”

Cajon (22-4), the San Andreas League champion, is that type of team.

No rewards: The Southern Section basketball playoff format does not make sense.

That statement is not in regard to the fact that every team in the section is eligible for the playoffs, although it would certainly be applicable. It pertains to the determination of home sites after the first round of the playoffs.

The section’s first criterion for determining the home team in second-round games is based on which of the paired teams has had the fewest number of home games in playoff competition.

In other words, if a team that won on the road in the first round is paired against a team which won at home, the former team gets the home game in the second round, regardless of its record.

Therefore, you get pairings such as Mission League champion Notre Dame (21-4) playing at Calabasas (10-12), the third-place finisher in the Frontier League, in a Division III-A game, or Ribet Academy (24-2), the Heritage League champion and No. 1-seeded team, traveling to play Highland Hall (12-8), the third-place finisher in the Westside League, in a Division V-A game.

Although the Southern Section format is designed to give all teams a chance to play at home in the playoffs, it discriminates against teams such as Notre Dame and Ribet Academy, who should be rewarded with the home-court advantage for winning a league title.

Title rush: Agoura senior Deena Drossin, the defending state champion in the 3,200 meters, has a chance to complete a unique quadruple in the upcoming track and field season.

Drossin, who won state Division I cross-country titles in 1987, 1989 and 1990, could win Southern Section championships in all four divisions in either track or cross-country during her career by winning a 3-A track title this year.

Agoura’s move from the Frontier to the Marmonte League made Drossin’s multiple-title opportunity possible.

As a member of the Frontier League, Agoura competed at the 2-A level in cross-country and at the 1-A level in track during Drossin’s freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.

Drossin won two 2-A cross-country titles and five 1-A track titles during that span.

Although Agoura was classified as a Division II school in cross-country last fall, the Chargers petitioned the Southern Section to move up to the Division I level--equivalent to the 4-A level in track--where Drossin won another individual title.

Her chance at a 3-A title in track is due to the fact that the Marmonte League has dropped from 4-A to 3-A this season.