Fenton’s Tough--and Has Nose to Prove It : Division II-A: Woodbridge center has played last half of season with injury. He’ll face Artesia on Saturday.

Basketball coaches often speak figuratively rather than literally when talking about hard-nosed players.

But when Woodbridge High School Coach Bill Shannon says center Mike Fenton’s a hard-nosed kid, he really means it.

Fenton, a 6-foot-7 senior, has played the last half of the season with a broken nose he suffered in a game against Baton Rouge (La.) Redemptorist in the Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic in December.

“It takes real courage and guts to do that,” Shannon said.

Fenton, the team’s most consistent rebounder (7.6 a game), was hit in the nose by a Redemptorist player while going up for a rebound.

“He tagged me,” Fenton said. “All I saw was this elbow in my face. The next thing I know, I’m on the floor and there’s blood everywhere. It was pretty scary at first.”

Two months later, Fenton’s nose is still broken. And he’s still playing basketball.

He will be in the starting lineup when the third-seeded Warriors play top-seeded Artesia in the Division II-A championship game at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Woodbridge (20-8) is making its third appearance in the section finals in five years.

“It’s going to be quite an experience playing in the Sports Arena,” Fenton said. “I’ve always gone there and watched games, but it seems different from 10 rows up than actually being out there playing. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long, long time.”

The finals seemed even further away last December.

After the injury, Fenton sat out the final game of the Las Vegas tournament. Shannon sent him to a doctor when the team returned to Irvine.

The doctor gave Fenton two options:

--He could have his nose repaired through surgery and sit out two weeks.

--Or he he could keep playing with the injury, as long as it didn’t restrict his breathing.

Fenton took a deep breath and . . .

“I told him to forget the surgery,” he said. “We were starting our league season, and there was no way I was going to miss that many games.

“It hurt, but it wasn’t totally crooked or anything. You can barely notice it now.”

Fenton said he hasn’t had problems with the nose since. He considered wearing a protective mask similar to the one worn by the Detroit Pistons’ Bill Laimbeer, but he couldn’t find one.

“I figured I’ll chance it,” he said. “I’ve been pretty lucky. I had been getting hit in the nose a lot before the injury, but I haven’t been hit since.”

But Fenton has been aggressive as ever.

He is averaging 10 points a game in Shannon’s 11-player rotation. He regularly guards the opponent’s top player. He has pulled down as many as 22 rebounds in a game. He even moves outside to shoot a three-pointer now and then.

“I’m mainly supposed to rebound and be a leader on the floor and keep everyone under control,” Fenton said. “I don’t score too much inside.”

But he scores consistently. He was among the county leaders in field-goal percentage (58.4%).

“One impressive thing about him is that he shot 65% from the floor during our league season,” Shannon said. “Any time you talk about someone hitting 65%, you’re talking about a solid player.”

Shannon said Fenton’s versatility is valuable to the team. Fenton said he wishes he was a better inside player.

“I don’t have a lot of moves,” Fenton said. “I just don’t think I’m that good of a center.”

Fenton will have his hands full with Artesia’s talented sophomore front line of Charles O’Bannon, Lavondre Jones and James Cotton.

“I just know that they’re quick and they’re big,” Fenton said. “If we get the ball low, we can’t shy away. We have to go at them and try to get them to foul us.”

Just protect that nose, though, Mike.