Time Is Right for a Shot Clock

It is time for the national high school basketball rules committee to consider a shot clock.

With every other form of organized basketball using a shot clock, prep basketball should do the same.

California has modified the national rules of its girls’ games by having a shot clock and eliminating backcourt and lack-of-sufficient-action violations. But its boys’ games still operate under the national rules.

Last week, the lack of a shot clock was evident when San Bernardino Cajon survived a slowdown attack by Apple Valley, winning, 23-8.

Cajon, The Times’ fourth-ranked Southern Section team, began the game with a 15-2 record and, led by senior forward Shaun Battle, a returning Division I first-team selection, was averaging more than 80 points.

With his high-scoring Cowboys, Coach Mark Lehman is always leery of opponents using some type of slowdown. But Friday’s game was a bit too much for him.

“I don’t think that it was fair to the players at all,” Lehman said. “(The Apple Valley players) were determined to hold the ball the whole game.”

Last season, Cajon fell victim to a slowdown in postseason play, losing to Saugus in the second round of the I-A Division playoffs, 48-44.

“The difference with Saugus was that they used the stall and tried to score with it,” Lehman said. “Every time we came up, they took advantage of a two on one, and it worked.

“But, Apple Valley didn’t even try to play. They would have had a better chance to win if they really played.”

Before this season, Apple Valley would not have been able to play that way without penalty, but a rule change made the game plan possible.

Previously, if a team trailed and did not force the action on both offense and defense, it was first warned and then either charged with a technical foul or made to give up the ball. This season, however, the National Federation Basketball Rules Committee eliminated the delay-of-game ruling.

Apple Valley, which began the game with a 3-4 league record, trailed by 6-2 at the end of the first quarter and by 13-4 at halftime.

Said Apple Valley Coach David Hare: “The game plan was something we worked on because the last six or seven times we played Cajon, they blew us out by 50 points. We decided that as long as we were within 12 points, we would stay with it.”

The Apple Valley-Cajon point total was far from the Southern Section’s all-time low.

The record was set in the 1978-79 season when San Clemente defeated Sierra, 6-4.

Quarterback Billy Blanton, who led Santa Ana Mater Dei High to the Southern Section Division I football title, has made an unwritten commitment to San Diego State.

Blanton, this year’s Times’ Glenn Davis Award winner as the best player in the Southland, said he chose San Diego State because he liked the Aztecs’ passing offense.

Dorsey running back Sharmon Shah, who shared honors as the City 4-A player of the year, has made an unwritten commitment to UCLA. Shah helped lead the Dons to a 4-A championship victory over Wilmington Banning.

One of the state’s most recruited players, offensive lineman Jeff Buckey of Bakersfield, made an unwritten commitment to Stanford after Coach Bill Walsh had visited. Buckey also received home visits from Lou Holtz of Notre Dame and Don James of Washington.

Van Nuys Montclair Prep lost a bid to regain postseason eligibility for its winter and spring sports.

The school was banned from postseason competition in all sports for the 1991-92 school year for illegally recruiting football players Derek and Leland Sparks in 1990.

By a 10-0 vote, the Southern Section Executive Committee agreed to continue that ruling, and one committee member told the school’s founder, Vernon Simpson, to “get his act together.”

Prep Notes

The Santa Barbara High boys’ basketball team had to forfeit seven games for using an ineligible player, Ted Russinov, a transfer student from Bulgaria, according to the Southern Section office. Santa Barbara is expected to appeal. . . . The Corona del Mar boys’ soccer team had to forfeit 10 victories and a tie for using an ineligible player.

Times’ Prep Polls

CITY SECTION

BOYS

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Westchester 4-A 11-3 1 2. Fremont 3-A 18-3 2 3. Washington 4-A 12-2 3 4. Manual Arts 4-A 13-2 4 5. Crenshaw 4-A 10-2 6 6. North Hollywood 3-A 16-1 7 7. Carson 4-A 11-5 NR 8. Dorsey 4-A 11-3 5 9. Fairfax 4-A 9-6 8 10. Locke 4-A 15-4 NR

GIRLS

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Washington 4-A 16-2 1 2. Carson 4-A 10-3 3 3. Banning 4-A 7-5 4 4. Crenshaw 4-A 12-2 2 5. Roosevelt 3-A 10-3 5 6. North Hollywood 4-A 10-3 6 7. Dorsey 4-A 8-2 NR 8. Van Nuys 3-A 12-1 7 9. University 3-A 8-4 8 10. Kennedy 4-A 8-5 9

SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Mater Dei I 20-1 1 2. Capistrano Valley I 18-3 2 3. Lynwood I 15-4 3 4. Cajon I 16-2 6 5. Glendora II 19-0 4 6. Riverside North I 17-2 6 7. Artesia II 15-3 7 8. Trabuco Hills II 15-5 9 9. LB Jordan I 16-4 NR 10. Lakewood I 14-4 13 11. San Bernardino I 16-3 11 12. La Canada I 18-2 15 13. San Marcos II 15-3 5 14. Santa Margarita III 16-3 10 15. Peninsula I 17-4 13

GIRLS

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Peninsula I 18-0 1 2. Thousand Oaks I 18-1 2 3. Brea-Olinda III 17-2 3 4. Lynwood I 16-1 4 5. Capistrano Valley I 19-1 5 6. Gahr II 17-2 6 7. Rubidoux II 17-0 7 8. Buena I 15-1 8 9. Ventura II 13-2 9 10. Chino I 15-4 10 11. Coachella Valley I 16-0 11 12. Bish. Montgomery II 17-3 12 13. LB Poly I 15-2 NR 14. Alemany II 15-4 14 15. St. Bernard III 15-3 15