He’s Serious About Winning State Title

The buzzer sounded Saturday night in the gym at Cal State Dominguez Hills, sending the Lincoln boys’ basketball team on its way to Sacramento, one victory away from a state championship.

More immediately, that buzzer sent the Hornets, who had just upset Oxnard Santa Clara, 62-60, into a wild frenzy.

The players jumped into each other’s arms at one end of the court. Coaches, family and friends joined the celebration. Everyone was in the throng except junior guard Archie Robinson.

Robinson wandered over to the bench and began pulling on his warm-ups, nary a smile on his face.

“My goal isn’t accomplished yet,” he said with a seriousness almost belying his youth. “I want a state championship.”

Coach Ron Loneski wasn’t surprised.

“That’s the kind of player Archie is,” he said. “He takes the game a lot more seriously than the other kids, but all of them want the state championship. That was one of our goals at the beginning of the season.”

Should Robinson and his teammates accomplish that goal, they would become the first boys’ team from San Diego to win a state title.

Since the California Interscholastic Federation reinstituted state playoffs in boys’ basketball in 1983, only three San Diego Section teams have made it to a championship game. Oceanside did in 1984 (Division II), and Lincoln (Division III) and Calipatria (Division V) did the same in 1988.

Lincoln now plays in Division IV.

But whom do they play? When Loneski picked up both The Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune Sunday morning, both papers informed him the Hornets would play Danville San Ramon. Loneski, however, correctly pointed out San Ramon is in Division II. We apologize. There was an error by the media liaison at the tournament.

Lincoln plays Salinas Palma, a 56-47 winner over Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman in the Division IV Northern California Regional. Palma is 28-2.

A legend lost: The Poway basketball team scored a 46-42 victory over Ventura Buena in the first round of the Southern California Girls’ Division I Regional playoffs. In the process, the Titans saddled Bulldog Coach Joe Vaughan with only the 39th loss of his career. Vaughan, the state’s first 400-game winner, has a career record of 402-39. Buena finished 25-4.

An optimist lost: Although Poway won in the first round, its reward was a game against the best team in the nation, Rolling Hills Peninsula. The two teams met in the second round of December’s Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions and Peninsula scored a 67-39 victory.

After beating Buena, Poway guard Jamie Shadian said she expected a better game this time: “We’ve improved drastically over the season; we’re going to give them a hell of a game.”

Peninsula won the rematch, 75-41.

Lucky charm: After Poway’s back-to-back boys’ and girls’ basketball titles, it was noted to senior Kyle Milling that he and his sister, Kara, have won two section championships.

“I’m sure she’ll get a couple more,” Kyle said.

Kara, a sophomore, has also won two girls’ volleyball titles.

If he only knew: Bob Manning, the Army-Navy baseball coach, pulled what many feel is a baseball no-no, switching catchers during a perfect game Friday by junior right-hander Robert DeHerrera.

“I changed in the third inning,” Manning explained. “I had no idea the kid was going to throw a perfect game. I was just trying to get as many people as I could some work. I didn’t even plan on Robert going more than two or three innings. I have other pitchers to work out.”

DeHerrera struck out 12 in his perfecto.