Pox Follows Rash of Injuries at Westlake

Westlake entered the basketball season with high hopes. Coach Gary Grayson went as far as to predict that the Warriors would finish among the top three in league play.

But Westlake (7-9, 3-4) has struggled and its troubles continued last week when four players--including three starters--were felled by injuries. Starters Brad Schwan (strained knee ligaments), Lonny Chavez (torn ankle ligaments), Chris Hayden (sprained ankle) and reserve Alex Pavich (non-basketball related injury) missed at least one game. Pavich is out for the season and Chavez, a senior point guard, will miss at least two weeks.

“We should play with Red Cross patches on our uniforms,” Grayson said. “As far as determining a starting lineup, we’ll put that dart board up and fire away.”

Billy Zaruka, a point guard Grayson brought up from the junior varsity to replace Chavez, has chickenpox and will be sidelined about two weeks.

“Now I have to find out who on the team has had (chickenpox) before and who hasn’t,” Grayson said.

He began the search with senior forward Joey Leavitt, who leads the team with averages of 18.9 points and 9.3 rebounds. “He’s had it, so that’s the first bit of good news we’ve had in a while,” Grayson said.

HIT THE ROAD

Quartz Hill did not stay long to savor its 51-49 double-overtime Golden League win at Ridgecrest Burroughs on Friday night.

Not only were Quartz Hill players targets of intense taunting during the game by the partisan crowd, they were harassed after the game, Quartz Hill Coach Steve Hurst said.

The situation became so turbulent that local police insisted on giving the first-place Rebels an escort out of town.

“We were going to stop and eat somewhere nearby, but they said, ‘You’d better get out of here fast,’ ” Hurst said. “I’m not going to go into what happened. It was a few isolated incidents involving some rowdy fans. It seemed like they had people hanging from the rafters in their gym.”

HANG TIME

Glendale’s Mike Wright was whistled for a technical foul against Arcadia for hanging on the rim while blocking a shot. According to Glendale Coach Bob Davidson, Wright, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, didn’t even touch the rim.

Wright, Davidson said, was just hanging around the rim. In mid-air.

“I couldn’t believe the call,” Davidson said. “I told the ref, ‘Maybe you’ve never seen a guy hang in the air that long, but he was nowhere near the rim.’ ”

MEMORABLE STREAK

Josh Hinrichs of Saugus made a fourth-quarter scoring surge Friday against Canyon that won’t soon be forgotten in the annals of the cross-town rivalry between the Golden League schools.

Hinrichs, who was double-teamed for the entire game and scored only seven points in the first three quarters, erupted for 12 points in the fourth quarter and nearly won the game in the final minute.

Before a frenzied capacity crowd, Hinrichs made three three-point shots on consecutive possessions in the final 43 seconds after Canyon had taken a seemingly insurmountable 56-49 lead.

Hinrichs’ final three-point attempt, an off-balance shot at the buzzer, grazed the rim, allowing Canyon to escape with a 62-59 victory.

NEVER SAY NEVER

Although Royal started slowly under first-year Coach Ira Sollod, the Highlanders won two consecutive Marmonte League games last week, including a 70-61 upset of Agoura. Two weeks ago, Royal lost two games by a total of eight points.

The Highlanders (6-11, 3-4) might be out of contention for the league title, but it appears that they will provide competition.

“We’re still not a great team, but we’re trying to get as much as we can out of the season,” Sollod said. “The kids know my system a little better and we shot pretty well last week.”

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU

The Thousand Oaks girls’ basketball team is showing no sign of slowing down, even if its record-setting sprinter Marion Jones is doing all her running on the track instead of the court these days. The Lancers are 4-0 since Jones was sidelined because of a broken wrist, including a 65-43 win over Marmonte League rival Westlake on Thursday.

“The first couple of games without (Jones), it was noticeable she wasn’t in there,” forward Sasha Scardino said.

In Jones’ absence, Scardino has been a force on the boards and in the Lancers’ pressure defense. Scardino emerged from a lengthy shooting slump to score 13 points, and she helped hold Westlake standout Lauren Goldstine to 10 points.

“I didn’t have enough confidence that my shot would go in earlier in the season,” Scardino said, “but I think I have my confidence back now.”

Scardino said that it is easy for people to forget that Thousand Oaks won the Southern Section Division I title last season without Jones, who transferred from Rio Mesa in November.

“We still have that team unity,” Scardino said.

SO LONG

While most girls’ basketball coaches in the Channel League were probably glad that they could prepare for Rio Mesa without having to concern themselves with Marion Jones, one who was not pleased that Jones transferred to Thousand Oaks was Buena’s Joe Vaughan.

“We were not happy to see Marion leave Rio Mesa,” Vaughan said. “We really need some more good games.”

With Jones in the lineup last season, Rio Mesa finished third in the Channel League and went 16-8 overall. Without Jones, the Spartans have struggled to a 6-10 record, 2-5 in league play. Last week, Buena defeated Rio Mesa, 76-30, with Michelle Giordano scoring 28 points.

In the absence of quality league opponents, Vaughan has scheduled tough nonleague foes. The Bulldogs beat four-time Southern Section champion Morningside, 68-50, Jan. 18 and next month will play host to Peninsula, ranked No. 1 in the nation in several polls.

MAIL CALL

Raffie Kassabian is Birmingham’s leading scorer, averaging 10.5 points a game.

His scoring average might be easily overlooked but certainly not his 6-foot, 205-pound frame.

“He’s a brute . . . a man-child,” Coach Al Bennett said. “They have that guy in Utah they call the mailman. . . . We call Kassabian the mailbox.”

MAGIC CARPET RIDE

Ventura finished second among 48 wrestling teams from throughout the state in the California Invitational tournament Saturday at San Luis Obispo High.

Two Ventura wrestlers claimed tournament championships. John Jimenez, who was 5-0 in the tournament, defeated Steve Lee of Newbury Park, 12-6, to win the 119-pound title. Scott Adams won by default over Steve Shook of South Hills in the 189-pound division. Ventura juniors Jason Carmody (130) and Matt Jones (140) lost in championship bouts.

Porterville Monache won the tournament. Among regional schools, Highland finished eighth and Newbury Park finished 11th. Ventura is 14-1 in dual meets, 3-0 in Channel League matches.

IF I HAD A HAMMER

If Rick Pally was a mechanic, he’d need to perform an overhaul. If he was a cook, he’d be starting this recipe from scratch. If he was a carpenter, he’d remodel.

If Pally was the new North Hollywood baseball coach, which he is, he’d probably do a little of each.

Pally, 41, is the Huskies’ fourth baseball coach in as many seasons. He replaces a now-departed Fred Grimes, who replaced Marty Biegel, who replaced Brian York. The twist with Pally is that he plans to be around for a long time.

In fact, Pally said that he was turned down for the job two years ago because there was no on-campus teaching position open in the school’s physical education department. A position opened last fall, allowing Pally to transfer from Walter Reed Junior High in North Hollywood.

The make-over began shortly thereafter. Pally already has gutted a storage shed near the baseball field and has installed lockers for his players. Mel Swerdling, the commissioner of American Legion District 20, has volunteered to be an assistant. Two collapsible batting cages also have been installed near the school diamond.

There is plenty of work to be done: North Hollywood finished 4-18 last season and last in the East Valley League at 3-14. The Huskies’ league foes are Poly, Sylmar and Grant, who compiled a combined Valley Pac-8 Conference mark of 39-12 in 1991.

HIGH HOPPER

When a player jumps extremely well, basketball junkies say he has some serious hops.

For some serious hops in the region, look no further than Simi Valley’s Danny Alexander, a 6-5 senior forward. In a Marmonte League game Jan. 15 at Thousand Oaks, Alexander used a back-door pick to free himself for an alley-oop pass from Ryan Briggs that he thundered home.

On a similar play earlier in the game, the pass was too hard and high, yet Alexander caught it with one hand and nearly jammed it through for another dunk. The ball rattled out of the hoop.

Alexander leaps better than former Simi Valley and current UCLA forward Don MacLean, who seldom dunked despite being 6-10.

“You can count on one hand how many dunks Don had in his career here,” Simi Valley Coach Dean Bradshaw said. “Danny must have 25 or 30 this season alone.”

REELING HUNTERS

Canoga Park, which has lost 13 consecutive games since winning its opener, received some more bad news last week.

The Hunters had been looking forward to the return of junior forward Steve Woodruff, who has been sidelined throughout the season because of a chronic knee injury.

Coach Jeff Davis received news that the 6-3, 175-pound All-Mid-Valley League selection will not return to the lineup.

“He’s not ready, not this year, not this season,” Davis said. “The knee is fine but they want to strengthen the area around the knee. He’s a Division I prospect player, so it’s just not worth risking it.”

Woodruff went to three doctors for opinions and all said that he should forgo the season.

SPECIAL DELIVERY

Oak Park basketball Coach Rob Hall barely made the 7:30 p.m. tipoff in a recent game against visiting Pasadena Poly after spending 12 hours assisting in the delivery of his daughter.

Brett Ashley Hall, the first child of Hall and his wife Gretchen, weighed in at 8 pounds 6 ounces at 3 p.m. Before Hall could make a fast break for the gym, it was 7 p.m.

Wearing sweats and a few days’ stubble, Hall joined the team courtside as the pregame clock was ticking down to about five minutes.

“When we first learned last May that she was going to have a baby, I knew we were going to have it on game day,” Hall said.

A birth announcement preceded player introductions, and the Eagles’ first-year coach received a standing ovation. Too bad Oak Park didn’t rise to the occasion. After taking a 14-6 lead, the Eagles fell, 50-39.

WELCOME BACK

Moorpark’s Richard Hernandez, whose parents yanked him from the school’s basketball team because of poor grades four weeks ago, has returned to the team.

Hernandez made four of four free throws in the fourth quarter Friday of the Musketeers’ 56-53 Tri-Valley League win over Oak Park in overtime.

STREAK BUSTERS

The Thacher lacrosse team is still in a celebratory mood after breaking Cate’s 33-game win streak Jan. 15 with an 8-7 overtime victory in Carpinteria. Tim Carter scored the winning goal in sudden death on an assist from Jesse Wooten, but not before some nervous moments for Coach Michael Mulligan.

“We had three shots right before Tim’s goal that barely missed the net,” Mulligan said. “Each time, my heart went up and each time it dropped. If Cate had come back and scored after we had come so close, it would have been hard to take.”

Cam Spaulding was one of the Toads’ heroes with three goals and one assist, and Justin Stephens and Brian Emme each scored two goals.

Cate had last lost Feb. 7, 1987, when Robert Louis Stevenson, a prep school in Monterey, beat the Rams, 6-4.

Thacher (5-0 in the Condor League) will play host to the first California high school lacrosse championships May 23-24 in Ojai. That tournament will bring together teams representing the Bay area, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, and the Condor League, which includes teams from Ventura, Santa Barbara and Monterey counties.

BAD NEWS VALIANTS

One player was suspended for skiing, another for a food-fight and five players played 32 minutes in one game. The leading rebounder, Ryan McGinnis, is a junior who didn’t play basketball last season. And the team’s practices are held on an outdoor court.

So what is there to be happy about at St. Genevieve? “A lot of coaches are saying we’re better than in the past,” first-year Coach Dan Donovan said. “But it’s like a moral victory. It doesn’t mark up in the ‘W’ column.”

St. Genevieve (6-9, 2-2) already has equaled its league victory total of a season ago.

David Coulson, Vince Kowalick and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech, T.C. Porter and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.