Palos Verdes Girls Breeze to a Title : Basketball: The top-ranked Sea Kings end the season with a lopsided 58-42 Division III victory to bring home their first state championship.

Where do they go from here?

After making a mockery of the State Division III playoffs, the Palos Verdes High girls’ basketball team will set its sights on loftier goals next season, including a mythical national title.

On Saturday, though, the Sea Kings were quite content to bask in the glory of their first state championship after defeating Healdsburg, 58-42, in a one-sided Division III final at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

The victory represented a season-long dream for Palos Verdes, which began the year as the state’s No. 1-ranked Division III team and faced virtually no challenges from high schools in its enrollment classification. The Sea Kings won eight postseason games by an average of 34 points.

It was suggested to Palos Verdes Coach Wendell Yoshida after Saturday’s game that anything less than a state title would have been considered a disappointment. He said his team understood that, but refused to let the pressure become a factor.

“This is a pretty subdued team,” Yoshida said. “Maybe it’s the way we approach things, so we don’t have so many peaks and valleys. We tried to be steady all year, almost to the point where it’s boring.

“But I knew if we accomplished our goals, then everybody would be happy. And I know everybody’s happy right now.”

Palos Verdes (32-2), which lost in the 1988 State Division II final, was never seriously challenged in its return trip to Oakland. The Sea Kings opened a 17-7 lead after the first quarter and maintained a comfortable advantage the rest of the way, leading by as many as 19, 49-30, early in the fourth quarter.

The four juniors in Palos Verdes’ all-underclass lineup each scored in double figures. Point guard Kristen Mulligan and 6-foot-3 forward Monique Morehouse each had 14 points, guard Raquel Alotis scored 13 and 6-5 center Jeffra Gausepohl added 10.

Mulligan, who also had four assists and five steals despite playing only 19 minutes because of foul trouble, said the victory confirmed what many have suspected since the Sea Kings opened the season.

“From the beginning of the summer, when we were first together, this was our goal,” said Mulligan, who transferred in the off-season from Santa Margarita High in Orange County. “I expected us to go this far.”

With all five starters, including freshman Mimi McKinney, returning, the prospect of Palos Verdes winning the State Division I and national titles as Peninsula High in 1992 was brought up to Yoshida. “That would be nice,” he said. “It could be a possibility next year. I really think we have the potential to be that good.

Yoshida will get no arguments from Healdsburg. The Greyhounds (30-5) paid their respects to Palos Verdes after shooting just 30% (16 of 54) and suffering one of its worst losses of the season.

“They’re a damn good basketball team,” Healdsburg Coach Harry Tappin said. “They’re the best team we’ve played, by far.”

Still, Tappin said the Greyhounds hurt themselves by getting off to a horrendous start. They made only two of their first 20 shots.

“They were rushing their shots, no question,” Tappin said of his players. “It wasn’t just one or two, it was all of them. We normally don’t take a shot off the first pass.”

Healdsburg’s top player, 6-0 forward Lainie Bebber, finished with 14 points and a game-high 17 rebounds, but made only five of 15 shots. Sophomore guard Mariah Volk added 11 points on four-of-12 shooting.

“We haven’t played this bad for awhile,” Volk said. “All of our shots were off because we’re not used to the big court. And I guess we were nervous, so we had a hard time.”

Of course, Palos Verdes probably had something to do with that. The inside game of Morehouse (11 rebounds) and Gausepohl was again a factor in keeping Healdsburg off the boards and away from the basket.

Healdsburg made only five of 26 shots in the first half as the Sea Kings opened a 28-14 lead.

“Jeffra Gausepohl and Mo Morehouse really came up strong on the inside,” Mulligan said. “Healdsburg shut down our outside game in the first half, so we needed Jeffra and Mo to come through, and they did that for us.”

The game was interrupted for nearly 10 minutes late in the third quarter after Healdsburg’s Shondra Stibi, a freshman forward, suffered a knee injury and collapsed in a great deal of pain. She was carried from the arena on a stretcher and taken to a nearby hospital, where the early diagnosis was strained ligaments.

For Yoshida, who built the Palos Verdes program from scratch in the early 1980s, the state title came as his greatest satisfaction .

“It’s just a great ending for all of these kids and all the work they’ve put in,” he said.

In one respect, it was an ending. Palos Verdes will close after the school year and consolidate with Rolling Hills and Miraleste to form 3,000-student Peninsula High next fall. A decision is expected soon on who will coach the team next season. Yoshida is considered the front-runner.

On the other hand, Saturday’s game may have signaled a beginning for Yoshida and his players. After what they accomplished this year, including two victories over State Division I finalist Morningside, the future looks promising, to say the least.