STATE HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Monarch Boys, Panther Girls Ready to State Their Cases : Division III: After transferring from Hawthorne, playing in a title game is a dream come true for junior guard Donminic Ellison.

After transferring from Hawthorne High, it didn’t take long for Donminic Ellison to have an impact on the Morningside basketball team.

Monarch Coach Carl Franklin had his first inkling about Ellison’s ability during the season-opening Pacific Shores tournament.

“That’s where I saw how well he could play,” Franklin said. “We still had some of our players involved with football, and he came through with big numbers and showed me a lot of skills. Believe me, it was a real eye-opener.”

Ellison has been among the leading scorers for Morningside (24-6), which will play Monterey Seaside (29-3) in the State Division III final at 4 p.m. Saturday at Arco Arena in Sacramento. The 5-foot-11 junior guard is averaging 17.3 points.

Not that Ellison’s skills went unnoticed at Hawthorne. He earned a spot on the varsity as a freshman and saw considerable playing time.

“I was the sixth man on the varsity as a freshman,” he said. “I got a lot of playing time, but I wasn’t really experienced enough for the varsity level. But I think it helped me for the years to come.”

He polished his game as a sophomore, when he started at point guard and averaged 16.7 points and 8.5 assists. But after a coaching change at Hawthorne, Ellison decided it was time to move on.

“When I was coming out of junior high school, the environment (in Inglewood) was bad with gangs, and my mom didn’t want me to drift that way,” said Ellison, who lives in Inglewood. “So she had me go to school at Hawthorne. After my sophomore year, my coach at Hawthorne left, and the situation in the area around Morningside was better. So that’s why I decided to go over to Morningside.”

By transferring, he was also reunited him with many of his childhood friends, including All-Southern Section guard Stais Boseman, who leads the Monarchs in scoring with a 17.7-point average.

“It’s just been a great experience,” Ellison said. “It’s a great feeling every day seeing and playing on the same team with my best friend. It’s probably the best feeling of my life and I’m just trying to enjoy it.

“Me and Stais have been friends for about six years, and we were close in junior high. We played basketball together, and we won the (Inglewood) city championship in junior high and it has carried on to high school. But now it’s not the City title. We’re playing for the state title.”

Ellison was also well-acquainted with other players on the squad before he arrived. He went to elementary school with forward Corey Saffold and guard Sean Harris and played against Dwight Curry in junior high.

It is the team’s camaraderie, he says, that has gone a long way toward explaining its success.

“We combine together rather well because we know each other,” he said. “We don’t argue too much, and we just have a great understanding between us. We have a lot of talented players and I know that can be a problem on some teams. But we don’t fight about things. We have a bond of friendship that goes past basketball.”

Said Franklin: “I think the fact that most of them have played on the same teams or played against each other since elementary school is very important.”

Knowing his teammates, Ellison wasn’t overly concerned after the Monarchs lost six of their first 14 games this season.

“During the (nonleague schedule), I thought we were capable of making it to the (Southern Section) finals because we didn’t have our starters back from football and we were still hanging in there,” he said. “I thought it would take us time to get together. But after we won the La Canada tournament (in late December), I thought we would win (the Ocean) league, and when we went 8-0 in our league, I thought we wouldn’t lose another game the rest of the season.”

Ellison said the Monarchs can win the one more game they need.

“I feel we have a great chance to win state,” he said. “We’re going there with a lot of confidence and we’re playing real well. I think we’re going to do very well.”

Seaside advanced to the final with a 91-82 victory last week over Hayward--the top-seeded team in Division III--in the Northern California regional. The Spartans’ best players are 5-10 point guard Tito Addison and 6-3 center Tyrone Thomas. They will have a considerable size disadvantage against the Monarchs, although both teams prefer an up-tempo style.

“It’s going to be tough,” Ellison said. “Both teams are going to be shooting for the stars. But I can guarantee them that we’re going to be ready, and we’re going to play hard the whole game.”