2nd Time the Charm for Allen in Voting for North Valley MVP

Granada Hills High swingman Jerry Allen has been selected the North Valley League basketball player of the year, and again, the final tally was as close as most of the games between league members.

Allen, a 6-foot-4 senior who averaged 22 points, 13.3 rebounds and six assists for the Highlanders, received the votes of Granada Hills Coach Bob Johnson and Kennedy Coach Yutaka Shimizu. Allen ranked among the top four area City Section players in the aforementioned statistical categories.

Brandon Martin, a 6-4 junior swingman from Cleveland who averaged 25.2 points to lead all area City players, received the vote of his coach, Kevin Crider. Taft Coach Jim Woodard voted for Allen and Martin to share the award.

Crider, whose team won the league title, criticized the outcome.

“There’s a formula to this,” Crider said Tuesday. “There’s no way a player from a third-place team is MVP. It goes to a player from the first-place team. . . . It’s ridiculous.”

Granada Hills and Taft tied for second at 7-3, but Taft was given the league’s second playoff seeding based on its two victories over the Highlanders.

Coaches met last week and were unable to determine which player should be selected. Woodard and Shimizu voted for co-players, resulting in a 1 1/2 to 1 1/2 tie. A second vote was taken late last week.

Two years ago, Cleveland forward Lucious Harris (Cal State Long Beach) edged Taft point guard Dedan Thomas (Nevada Las Vegas) when Woodard, tired of pleading Thomas’ case, gave in to then-Cleveland Coach Bob Bras-well.

Last season, forwards Garret Anderson of Kennedy and Bobby McRae of Cleveland shared the award.

Double trouble: There are several double-duty coaches in the City Section, including Darryl Stroh at Granada Hills and Mike Maio at El Camino Real. Both coach the baseball teams and serve as co-coaches in football.

At Hamilton, Dave Uyeshima handles basketball and baseball, sports in which there is considerable overlap.

Hamilton will visit Reseda at 7:30 tonight in a 3-A Division basketball quarterfinal, but Uyeshima will not have spent a moment with the team since last Friday’s 76-73 playoff victory over Lincoln.

If he mistakenly calls a referee an umpire, try to understand. On Monday, Uyeshima accompanied the baseball team to Gardena, where the team scrimmaged. If Uyeshima’s choice sounds a little curious, he has little choice: He has no baseball assistants but does have assistants for basketball.

“Besides, if we don’t know what to do by now,” Uyeshima said of the basketball team, “then we’re beyond help anyway.”

Three-point man: Of Hueneme guard David Moraga’s 42 field goals this season, 39 sailed from three-point range.

“And on two of his two-pointers, his foot was on the line,” Coach Howard Davis said. “The other one was a layup.”

Of Moraga’s 124 points, 117 came via three-point baskets. Moraga, a senior, came within one basket of tying the school’s single-season three-point shot record of 40, set last season by Giovanni Guese. Moraga was 39 of 63 (61.9%) from three-point range and 42 of 71 (59.2%) overall.

Spelling bee: Take heart, Cory Bowen fans. Brian Schimelpfening has come to the rescue.

Bowen, a Thousand Oaks running back whose first name was incorrectly spelled C-O-R-E-Y by his coach and several newspapers last season, probably understands what Schimelpfening, a senior forward at Channel Islands, has endured this basketball season.

Schimelpfening’s name has been misspelled by Coach Don Salado on at least three occasions this season, despite Salado’s assurance each time that the latest change was correct.

First, it was Schimelpfehing. Then it was Schimelphing. And, two weeks ago, Salado produced Schimelfphing. “It’s S-C-H-I-M-E-L-F-P-H-I-N-G, I’m sure of it this time,” Salado insisted.

Channel Islands’ scorekeeper added her assurance, but a Times reporter handed his notebook and pen to the person whose name was in question.

He smiled, then neatly spelled Schimelpfening.

“What?!” Salado said, grabbing his glasses and examining the paper. “Well, shoot, what do you know?”

Apparently not much about spelling.

May flowers: Thousand Oaks forward Shane May, a seldom-used but easygoing senior, drew the loudest ovation during the Lancers’ 77-42 win over Simi Valley in a recent Marmonte League game.

Lancer supporters rose to their feet when May left the bench and reported to the scorer’s table to enter the game with 3 minutes 56 seconds to play. Then May brought the house down when he drew an offensive foul and buried a three-point shot.

“It was a lot of fun because I hardly ever play,” a beaming May said afterward.

When was the last time May played? He paused.

The question required more thought than May would have preferred. “I don’t even remember,” he said.

May, a three-year starter on the varsity golf team who is expected to be the Lancers’ No. 1 player this spring, has plenty of basketball supporters. He pointed to a group of friends in the crowd after he drew the offensive foul, and the Lancers have nicknamed him “Vintage.”

“We call him that because whenever he plays, we know he’ll take a charge and attempt a three-pointer,” Coach Ed Chevalier said. “That was vintage May tonight.”

Stirring performances: Some of the finest efforts in the Marmonte League this winter were not limited to the competition.

At the Marmonte League wrestling championships Feb. 10 at Channel Islands, Raider senior Art Balayan sang the National Anthem with such skill that the crowded gymnasium remained silent until the final chord.

Balayan then went out and pinned Camarillo’s Andy Portillo in 1 minute 39 seconds to win the 125-pound championship.

Balayan, a first-year varsity wrestler, improved to 22-12.

Rising to the occasion: Coach Greg Hilliard believes that Harvard played one of its best games of the season against Santa Margarita in a first-round Southern Section III-A Division game Friday.

Harvard (18-5) shot 50% from the field. Markus Puhvel scored 27 points and Andres Carlo had 22 points and six blocks, but Harvard lost, 83-76, after being outscored, 13-6, in overtime.

“Guys were crying afterward, but I thought we played an exceptional game,” Hilliard said. “I told the guys that in the playoffs you can play a great game but it still comes down to having some luck, and at the end of regulation we didn’t get it.”

Add Harvard: Puhvel will be looking forward to college next year but not to play basketball. Puhvel is among 100 national finalists for the Morehead scholarship for the University of North Carolina and is preparing for his interview for one of the 40 grants.

“I’m definitely going to miss basketball, but I dropped the idea when I had an opportunity for the scholarship,” said Puhvel, whose father Jaan is a professor at UCLA.

Jaan is working on his fourth of a nine-volume Hittite dictionary. It has taken him 22 years to complete the first three volumes. Puhvel, however, never considered attending UCLA.

“I hung out there so many times as a child that it would be kind of eerie going there,” Puhvel said.

Role players: Hart basketball teammates Marty Downen and Keith Halcovich are featured in a cable television commercial for the Downen’s flooring business.

Downen is shown dunking over Halcovich, who played loosely on defense.

Their coach, Greg Herrick, gave the performance a thumbs-down--and he hasn’t even seen the commercial.

“I heard it was bad acting,” he said, laughing.

Staff writers Steve Elling, Kirby Lee and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.