State Finals in Basketball Being Moved for One Year

For one year only, the State basketball tournament finals will be moved from the Oakland Coliseum Arena to Arco Arena in Sacramento. The move was made because the Coliseum is holding the World Figure Skating Championships.

The Coliseum has held the prep finals since the tournament was resumed in 1983. Sellout crowds have been routine.

A total of 10 championship games--five divisions each for boys and girls--will be played March 20-21 in Sacramento. In a switch, the girls’ Division I game will be the featured contest, March 21 at 8 p.m. The boys’ Division I game will precede it at 6.

Arco Arena can seat 17,014, compared to 15,025 for the Coliseum.

Four years ago, the gymnasium at Avalon High on Catalina Island was condemned because of the presence of asbestos. Since then, the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams at the school have had to play all their games on the road.

Coaches and players take a ferry to the mainland every Friday during the season and play Friday night-Saturday morning doubleheaders. Designated home games are usually played at a high school in Long Beach.

The traveling is tiring and expensive. The athletic department is more than $30,000 in debt.

But things are about to change with the opening of a new gym Friday. The $2.4-million facility, funded through the state school-building bond, is 9,000-square feet. It is many months behind schedule, but no one at the school is complaining.

A grand opening will be held Friday at 11 a.m., then Avalon will play host to Encino Holy Martyrs that night.

Walter Jackson, a 6-3 center at San Francisco Balboa High, broke the boys’ state single-game scoring record Friday with 78 points in a 123-60 victory over San Francisco O’Connell.

The old record was 74 points by Nick Tenneriello of the now-closed Los Angeles Colbert High.

Last month’s Southern Section Division I football championship game between Santa Ana Mater Dei and Rialto Eisenhower, played before 33,204 at Anaheim Stadium, netted $150,000.

Stan Thomas, section commissioner, reported that participating schools received $37,500 each, with the section getting $75,000.

Quarterback Ryan Fien of Simi Valley Royal, who passed for 1,720 yards last season, has made an oral commitment to the University of Texas.

The Thousand Oaks girls’ basketball team proved its could win without top player Marion Jones.

The Lancers won both their games last week, one a 58-25 rout of Agoura, and ran their record to 15-1. Jones, an All-American sprinter, recently broke her wrist and dislocated her jaw.

She will not return to the team this season.

Times’ Prep Polls

CITY SECTION

BOYS

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Westchester 4-A 10-3 1 2. Fremont 3-A 17-3 2 3. Washington 4-A 11-2 3 4. Manual Arts 4-A 12-2 4 5. Dorsey 4-A 11-2 5 6. Crenshaw 4-A 9-2 6 7. North Hollywood 3-A 15-1 7 8. Fairfax 4-A 8-6 8 9. Taft 4-A 9-3 0 10. Chatsworth 4-A 9-4 10

GIRLS

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Washington 4-A 14-2 1 2. Crenshaw 4-A 12-1 2 3. Carson 4-A 9-3 3 4. Banning 4-A 6-4 4 5. Roosevelt 3-A 9-3 5 6. North Hollywood 4-A 9-3 6 7. Van Nuys 3-A 11-1 7 8. University 3-A 7-4 8 9. Kennedy 4-A 7-5 9 10. Huntington Park 3-A 13-3 10

SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Mater Dei I 19-1 1 2. Capistrano Valley I 16-3 3 3. Lynwood I 14-4 2 4. Glendora II 16-0 4 5. San Marcos II 14-2 5 6. Cajon I 14-2 6 7. Riverside North I 15-2 7 8. Artesia II 11-3 8 9. Trabuco Hills II 13-5 10 10. Santa Margarita III 16-2 11 11. San Bernardino I 15-2 12 12. Lakewood I 14-4 13 13. Peninsula I 17-3 14 14. La Canada I 16-2 15 15. Gahr II 15-4 9

GIRLS

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Peninsula I 17-0 1 2. Thousand Oaks I 15-1 2 3. Brea-Olinda III 15-2 3 4. Lynwood I 14-1 4 5. Capistrano Valley I 17-1 5 6. Gahr II 16-1 6 7. Rubidoux II 15-0 7 8. Buena I 12-1 8 9. Ventura II 11-2 9 10. Chino I 12-4 10 11. Coachella Valley I 14-0 11 12. Bis. Montgomery II 16-1 12 13. Cerritos I 13-5 13 14. Alemany II 15-3 14 15. St. Bernard III 15-2 15