THE PREPS / LONNIE WHITE : Peninsula Girls Having a Can’t-Miss Season

Before the season, Monique Morehouse knew that Palos Verdes Peninsula High would have an outstanding girls’ basketball team.

With five starters returning from the State Division III championship Palos Verdes team--which merged with the Rolling Hills and Miraleste High teams this season after the three schools were consolidated--she couldn’t imagine the Panthers losing.

So far, she has been correct. While compiling a 32-0 record, Peninsula has been rated as the nation’s No. 1 team for most of the season by USA Today.

“When we won the State title last year, I knew that we could be better this season,” said Morehouse, a 6-foot-3 forward who will attend Auburn in the fall. “The reason is that we mainly had the same team back and we also were getting players from the other schools,” she said.

Merely having an entire starting lineup return indicates a veteran team, but having several Division I college recruits in that lineup means a potential powerhouse.

Morehouse will be joined at Auburn by guard Kristen Mulligan. Center Jeffra Gausepohl is headed for Virginia, and guard Raquel Alotis plans to attend UC Santa Barbara.

“It’s great to play on a team like this because with everyone as good as they are, it makes you play harder,” said Morehouse, who is averaging eight points and eight rebounds a game. “I’d rather be on a team like this that is ranked No. 1 than be the main person on a team that doesn’t win.”

Peninsula got its first scare of the season in a 54-44 victory over Lynwood in the Southern Section Division I-AA championship game March 7. The Panthers led by one point late in the fourth quarter before pulling away.

“That was the first time all season that I thought that if we didn’t get it together, we could lose,” Morehouse said. “We had to really play because we let up on them in the third quarter.”

Last Saturday, Lynwood, whose standout center, Janet Davis, was slowed with a leg injury, jumped ahead, 10-4, before Peninsula responded and won, 60-50, in the State Southern Regional Division I final.

“They really played us tough because they think that our whole team is overrated,” said Morehouse, who scored 10 points and had a game-high 14 rebounds. “That helped them early, but in the end, their talking didn’t get them anywhere. We had to make them shut up and prove that we were the best team.”

It was no shock that Santa Ana Mater Dei won the boys’ State Southern Regional Division I title last Saturday, but the surprise was how it did it.

With only one senior starter, the Monarchs had been considered a year away from being dominant.

“We knew we would be good, but now everyone expects a lot from us,” junior forward Terence Wilborn said. “Mater Dei has always had a winning program.”

The only team remaining between Mater Dei and a third State title is defending champion Alameda St. Joseph, led by prep All-American guard Jason Kidd.

Whatever the outcome, Mater Dei expects to continue winning next season--Arizona-bound guard Reggie Geary is the only starter not returning.

The Inglewood Morningside boys’ basketball team will be making its first appearance in a State championship game Friday.

Although the school’s girls’ team played in successive State Division I title games from 1988 through ‘91, the Morningside boys’ team has always come up short of the final.

This time, with Stais Boseman scoring 25 points, Morningside (24-6) defeated Costa Mesa Estancia, 84-67, to earn a berth in the State Division III title game against Monterey Seaside.

Morningside Coach Carl Franklin said: “Our girls’ teams have won their share of State titles, but the boys’ program here has also won. We have had good players here like Byron Scott and Elden Campbell, and in 1985 we won a Southern Section title. To say that we haven’t been a success (until now) is wrong.”

Prep Notes

Mater Dei has nearly 900 tickets for Saturday’s final, but they need about 1,500 to fill requests for the game at Arco Arena, which is expected to be filled to its 17,014-seat capacity Saturday. . . . City champions Westchester and Fremont each placed three players on the All-City boys’ basketball teams that were named this week. Heading the 4-A squad were Westchester’s James Gray, Lorenzo Ball and Jason Sanders. Gray shared player-of-the-year honors with Brandon Martin of Washington. Todd Whitehead, Eric Wattree and Ricky Brown represent Fremont on the 3-A team. Whitehead was selected as player of the year. The teams are sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Foundation and picked by sportswriters.