South Has Early Edge in Pioneer

The South Torrance boys’ basketball team took control of the Pioneer League on Friday with a 54-51 victory over Centennial.

The host Spartans (16-3 overall, 3-0 in league play) have been impressive, but Coach LaMont Henry is concerned.

“We’ve still got our eyes on Torrance,” he said. “We feel that Torrance has got a team that can beat us. With Michael Dean and Joe Otos, we think they can cause us some problems.”

South plays host to Torrance at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Henry is also worried about his team’s return matchup against Centennial on Feb. 12 in Compton. Centennial is tied for sixth in the Southern Section Division III poll.

“We expect a much tougher game when we go there to play them,” Henry said. “They’ll be waiting for us when we get there.”

Henry believes the league title race is far from settled.

“We’re almost halfway through and it’s not over by far,” he said. “I really feel like we could end up in a three-way tie with Centennial and Torrance.”

For the moment, though, the Spartans are happy to be in first place. South has not had a winning season since 1978.

The Spartans have a balanced offense with four players scoring in double figures. The leader has been senior guard Jason Anthony. Senior forward Kevin Pfau, junior guard Jimmy Williamson and junior center Kyle McIntosh have also stepped forward.

McIntosh scored 18 points and Pfau 15 against Centennial.

But it was South’s defensive that led to the victory over Centennial. McIntosh and Pfau helped limit Centennial center Wil Weir to four points before he fouled out with two seconds remaining.

“The key was keeping Wil Weir off the boards,” Henry said. “Kevin did a good job of keeping him off the boards. We figured (Weir) was the key and we scouted them and knew if we could keep him off the boards we could win.”

The coach also credits the team’s attitude with its success.

“These guys are just natural winners,” Henry said. “They know what it takes to win and they just like to play.”

He thinks his team will only get better as the playoffs approach.

“We’re still improving,” Henry said. “We seem to get better with every game. I think the big thing is we’ve been working hard in practice. We’re just working to get better for the playoffs.”

After a two-week dead period in which coaches were not allowed to hold practices or have contact with players, most L.A. City basketball teams returned to action Friday and the results were fairly predictable.

There were few scores that would be considered upsets and the quality of play was ugly at times.

For example, the Dorsey boys missed their first eight shots and fell behind, 19-0, in an 86-74 loss to Carson.

The Banning boys also had their difficulty, committing 32 turnovers in an 86-74 defeat to Crenshaw. For that matter, Crenshaw made 19 turnovers.

“I thought we came off the break very sloppily,” Banning Coach Marc Paez said. “Our last game was Jan. 4 and it really looked like we hadn’t played in 20 days. We had 32 turnovers and that’s a turnover a minute. That’s just a very sloppy manner of play.”

Despite the fact that his team won, Carson Coach Richard Masson said it was anything but a well-played game.

“I was surprised we played as well as we played at the beginning,” he said. “We jumped out 19-0, but we did run out of gas in the second half. I think both teams did although it probably showed on Dorsey more at the beginning of the game.”

Masson also saw the Banning-Crenshaw game and said it was sloppily played.

“I scouted that game and there were a lot of turnovers and generally sloppy play and that’s to be expected in a situation like this,” he said.

In many cases, according to Paez, it was like starting the season over.

“It was kind of funny,” he said. “In a lot of ways, it felt like the first game of the season. I know it did for me and I’m sure it felt that way for the players.”

Paez said he felt the two-week layoff only made the results more predictable.

“I think what the break did was take away the possibility of an upset,” he said. “With the layoff, the execution just wasn’t there and that usually helps the more talented team. To get an upset, the less talented team has to execute well and with the layoff that’s just very difficult.”

How long will it take for teams to return to their form before the break?

“It has been a long layoff and none of the teams are finely tuned or in game condition,” Masson said. “I told the team that it’s going to take about another week to be about where we should be. I think right now there are going to be a lot of ups and downs that are more atypical than typical of what you’d see at this time of the season.”

Said Paez: “I’m hopeful we can get it back to where we were. I think this game will go a long way toward reminding us what level we need to be at when we go on the court. I think a good week will probably do it.”

While many L.A. City basketball teams may have suffered from the layoff, that hardly appeared to be the case for the Westchester boys.

The Comets (16-2 overall, 2-0 in the Coastal Conference) scored an easy 77-59 victory over Venice on Friday.

“We played surprisingly well,” Coach Ed Azzam said. “We had three very good days of practice. The effort was good and we worked very hard. I was kind of scared about Friday’s game, but they came out and did a good job.”

In fact, Azzam thinks the break may have even benefited his team.

“The rest may have been good,” he said. “We have nine seniors, so this is a veteran group. But I’d hate to see what it would’ve been like with younger players.”

If his team suffered at all, he said, it was in conditioning.

“The kids played surprisingly well,” he said. “The only thing was that they couldn’t go for very long. They just got tired.”

He said stamina and conditioning were definitely a problem for Venice, which had only seven players for the game.

“By the fourth quarter, they were already down by 20 and they didn’t have the energy to keep up,” Azzam said.

But despite his team’s relatively smooth return, Azzam could do without the break.

“We usually break a season up into different parts, anyway, but this layoff was really something for us to deal with,” he said. “Even though it may have worked out, I’m still not in favor of a two-week layoff. The first week is OK, but the second week is really long.”

The Torrance boys’ basketball team was caught a little off guard early in the season.

With talented point guard Micheal Dean missing most of the early portion of the season because of a hamstring injury, the Tartars lost nine of 13 games.

But since the return of Dean, Torrance has made dramatic improvement in its past four games. The Tartars beat highly regarded Mira Costa, 88-68, in a nonleague game Wednesday and defeated West Torrance, 80-56, in a Pioneer League game Friday as Dean scored 22 points.

They have won three of four games since Dean’s return, the loss coming to Centennial.

“From the box score you can tell he’s been scoring points and that’s something we’ve been missing,” Coach Bob Little said. “He’s also helping us out with his passing.”

Torrance’s difficulty early in the season was also compounded because of an ankle injury to guard Jeff Kubo that forced him to miss eight games. Guard Darryl Burgess also was slowed because of nagging injuries.

“Those injuries to three guards really hurt our depth,” Little said. “It’s nice to have them back.”

With the team reaching full strength for the first time this season, Little is hoping the Tartars can start to fulfill the promise that many expected from them at the start of the season.

“This is a lot more like the team that we had in the summer,” Little said. “Now I’ve finally got the players back.”

The players have returned at an opportune time for Torrance, which has an important league game against South on Wednesday and another critical game against Centennial on Feb. 5.

“I think we’ve shown we can play well,” Little said. “We already had some pretty good athletes. We just needed one more.”