THE HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE ELLING : Buena and Hart Coaches Soak Up Basketball Titles in League Finales

As though it hasn’t been wet enough outside, a pair of area boys’ basketball coaches spent Friday night dealing with water from a more unlikely source. In each instance, the success of their teams precipitated the excess moisture.

These were the types of baths that any coach would prefer to be less intermittent.

Buena Coach Glen Hannah politely was asked to remove his coat and shoes before he was chucked by his players into the school pool in celebration of a 48-46 victory over visiting San Marcos.

And Hart Coach Greg Herrick was showered from behind by a pair of water-wielding players on the team bus after the Indians hammered Burroughs, 80-57.

It was a watertight performance for each school. Hart earned a share of the Foothill League title with Schurr and Buena won the Channel League title in regular-season finales.

Buena’s title was considerably tougher to achieve. The Bulldogs, seeking their first league title in four years, trailed by six points with two minutes remaining, and perimeter bomber Lance Fay had been held to two points on one-for-10 shooting.

But Fay did not fade away and neither did his teammates. After Buena pared the lead to four, Fay, a senior guard who was blanketed by a variety of defenses, scored on a three-point shot with about one minute left and was fouled. He made the free throw to tie the score, 46-46.

“It was probably our first four-point play of the year,” Hannah said.

San Marcos tried to stall for the final shot, but Fay tipped a pass toward midcourt and a footrace was on. Fay, who averages 30.3 points a game, retrieved the ball and scored on a lay-in with six seconds left. He finished with eight points.

Soon after, Hannah was escorted to the pool by his players and summarily dunked--which is basically what Hart did to Burroughs.

Led by 6-foot-5, 250-pound senior forward Ali Peek, Hart jumped to a 25-14 lead after one quarter and never looked back.

Herrick, though, did look back, and it did not help. After Herrick boarded the bus, Matt Steffe and Erik Stephens doused him from behind with water bottles despite Herrick’s good-natured threats.

“I told ‘em, ‘Do it and you won’t start in the playoffs,’ ” Herrick said. “They did it anyway. Good thing I was wearing a raincoat.”

Let this soak in: Because Hart won the league championship last season, the victory marked the second time the team has won or shared back-to-back league titles since the school opened in 1945.

Add wetlands: Herrick often has been asked how Peek has escaped the notice of the school’s football staff. Herrick said Peek hasn’t so much as played flag football and that swimming is the player’s off-season passion.

Herrick said he cannot envision his titanic senior in the tank.

“I have a hard time picturing that,” Herrick said. “With that wake, the guys in the outside lanes would get washed up on the deck.”

Peek decked Burroughs too. He finished with 25 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Chris crossed: What do Marquis Burns of Reseda, Casey Sheahan of Taft, Markee Brown of El Camino Real, Javier Ramos of San Fernando and Joe Wyatt of Kennedy have in common?

All have scoring averages of 20 points or better, but they have something else in common. Each was held under his average by Chatsworth guard Chris Dunbar.

Since December, Dunbar has been asked to glue himself to the best scorers in the Northwest Valley Conference and the results have been predictable.

Over the past few months, Dunbar has dumbfounded the best that area City Section teams have to offer, and almost exclusively while playing man-to-man defense. Ramos scored 10 points, Sheahan 11 and Brown 12. The first time Chatsworth faced Reseda in a December tournament game, Burns was held to 13.

The streak started against Wyatt in a league opener in early December. Wyatt scored 19 points, but 12 came during fourth-quarter garbage time.

“I think Burns is the only guy around that he can’t really guard,” Chatsworth Coach Sandy Greentree said. “If he’s hot, nobody can stop him.”

Alas, when Chatsworth faced Reseda a couple of weeks ago, Burns had pay-back on his mind: He made 14 of 22 shots from the field and finished with 33 points.

Pinwheeling: Glendale High’s Armik Bagramyan, all 125 pounds of him, continues to roll along.

Since Glendale fields no wrestling team, Bagramyan--who 2 1/2 years ago moved to the United States from Armenia--is the lone Southern Section wrestler competing as an individual.

At a section free-lance meet Friday at Highland High, Bagramyan recorded two pins and an eight-point victory in his three matches and earned a berth in the section finals Friday and Saturday at Glenn High in Norwalk.

Not only is Bagramyan without a team, he essentially is without a coach. Jo Willoughby-Butcher is his coach of record, but in actuality she is an art teacher at Glendale who volunteered to lend a hand.

While other coaches stood at the edge of the mat Friday and bellowed instructions to their wrestlers, Willoughby-Butcher sat in the stands and let Bagramyan fend for himself.

“The other coaches made it pretty clear they didn’t want me down there (on the mat),” Willoughby-Butcher said with a laugh.

Inundated schedule: The Los Angeles Unified School District’s decision to postpone athletic events Friday because of safety concerns raised by the threat of inclement weather is flooding the schedule for the final week of City Section basketball.

Reseda, for instance, also postponed its game last Wednesday against El Camino Real. Because Monday is a school holiday, Reseda is facing four games in as many days and could play El Camino Real twice in that stretch. The regular season ends Friday, but games might have to be rescheduled for the following Monday.

Reseda Coach Jeff Halpern, an outspoken critic of the basketball schedule that was adopted after the district switched to the year-round school calendar, has thrown up his hands in frustration. His team, if it faces San Fernando on Wednesday as originally scheduled, will be coming off a 12-day layoff. “The whole thing is in such turmoil,” he said. “At this point, whatever happens, happens.”

Reseda (10-5, 5-1 in league play) holds a half-game lead over Chatsworth (13-6, 5-2) in the race for the West Valley League title.

It could be worse. Verdugo Hills has to somehow crowbar five games into four days. Verdugo Hills’ Wednesday and Friday games last week were postponed for weather-related reasons.

Before the rains complicated matters, the Dons (8-8, 2-3) already had rescheduled for this week a game that had been postponed.