PREP FLASHBACK : THIS WEEK IN COUNTY PREP SPORTS HISTORY

10 YEARS AGO

Edison won its first basketball playoff game in the school’s history when the Chargers upset Compton, 48-47, in overtime.

“I felt like the captain of the Titanic,” Edison Coach Barry Leigh said. “All the students kept telling us, ‘It’s great to be in the playoffs--too bad you have to play Compton.’ ”

Leigh didn’t say whether he called Ocean View Coach Jim Harris, his Sunset League rival, for advice on how to play Compton. Ocean View beat Compton earlier in the season.

But then again, Ocean View, led by forward Wayne Carlander, beat a lot of teams in finishing 22-3 for the regular season. Harris did admit to getting calls, but didn’t say who called him.

“I feel like a scouting service,” Harris said. “Everyone is calling me and asking me for advice on how to play teams. I think only (Long Beach) Poly has played as many quality opponents as we have.”

Ocean View played 12 of the teams that qualified for the 4-A Division playoffs.

5 YEARS AGO

Big Wheel Keep On Turnin’--Katella Coach Tom Danley often referred to his basketball team as the spokes and to star player Bob Erbst, now at UC Santa Barbara, as “The Hub.”

But when Erbst got into foul trouble and eventually fouled out in the 3-A Division playoffs, Danley was happy that the spokes kept turning in a 69-60 victory over Damien.

With Erbst foul-free, Katella opened a 35-17 lead midway through the second quarter. But Erbst got his third foul with 3 minutes 33 seconds left in the half and Damien closed the gap because Erbst could not be as active on defense. Damien got an added boost when Erbst picked up his fourth foul with just two seconds left in the half.

“There are a lot of schools of thought about whether you keep a player in the game who’s in foul trouble,” Danley said. “Without ‘The Hub,’ we might as well have kissed off this game. Just his presence was a factor. When he fouled out, I thought the roof was going to cave in.”

Instead, Katella guards Wayne Petrakis and Steve Stierstofer made clutch field goals and free throws to hold off Damien.

1 YEAR AGO

Laughing in the Face of Defeat--Fullerton Coach Chris Burton faced elimination from the basketball playoffs when his team drew top-seeded Artesia in the quarterfinals of the IV-A bracket, but he didn’t seem to mind. Artesia was led by consensus high school All-American Ed O’Bannon and had defeated La Puente, 112-28, the week before.

“I understand that was a close game until they started playing,” Burton said. “These guys are horrible to play but they’re fun to watch.

“I told my kids that O’Bannon was just flesh and blood like the rest of us. . . . Of course I want them to run some biological tests just to make sure.”

Fullerton knew how good O’Bannon was when Artesia defeated the Indians, 74-53, the year before:

“He destroyed us,” Burton said. “He had one reverse dunk that our bench gave him a 9.4 on. We loved it.”

Postscript: O’Bannon had an encore performance, with 20 points and 16 rebounds, and Artesia won, 80-51. For Burton, it wasn’t such a bad ending, since his team started 1-10 and finished 13-13.