Title Defense Begins Early for Peninsula, Morningside Teams : Preps: Both schools have opportunity to reach basketball quarterfinals when Los Angeles Watts Summer Games resume Saturday.

Although dust has barely collected on their championship trophies, the Peninsula High girls and Morningside boys already have begun defense of their state basketball titles.

Both teams are playing Saturday for a chance to reach the quarterfinals in the Los Angeles Watts Summer Games.

Peninsula will play Narbonne at 9 a.m. at Locke. Morningside will meet rival Inglewood at 11 a.m. at Compton College. If Peninsula wins, it will play the winner of the Rancho Alamitos-Fontana game at 1:30 p.m. at Locke. The Morningside-Inglewood winner plays either South Gate or Manual Arts at 3 p.m. at Compton.

There are five other South Bay basketball teams still competing in the Summer Games. Westchester’s boys play Santa Barbara at 10 a.m. Saturday at Jordan. The winner will play either Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks or Crenshaw at 1:30 p.m. at Jordan.

In girls action, Morningside plays Channel Islands at 11 a.m. at St. Bernard, and St. Bernard meets Long Beach Millikan at noon. The winners meet at 3 p.m. at St. Bernard. Inglewood and Bishop Montgomery play at 11 a.m. at Locke, with the winner meeting Lynwood or Chaffey at 3 p.m.

The Panthers, who defeated Cupertino Monta Vista to win the State Division I championship and were named mythical national champions by USA Today, lost four Times’ South Bay All-Stars to graduation: guards Raquel Alotis and Kristen Mulligan, center Jeffra Gausepohl and forward Monique Morehouse.

Peninsula also has competed in the Summer Games without junior forward Mimi McKinney, another Times’ South Bay All-Star who averaged 14 points a game last season. McKinney is playing with a club team in an Arizona tournament this week and might not be available to the Panthers unless they reach Sunday’s championship game.

“We’re young and not very experienced but this group knows what it takes and what has to be done to be good,” Coach Wendall Yoshida said. “We’ve been practicing, lifting weights and working out. We hope to play up to 50 games this summer.”

Yoshida also has entered his team in the Estancia tournament in Costa Mesa this week. Peninsula plays Trabuco Hills at 8:30 tonight. If the Panthers win, they will play again Saturday.

“When you’ve coached this long, what’s important is what kind of kids you have,” Yoshida said. “Obviously we’re not national championship contenders at this point, but the summer is an experimental stage. We decide things like whether to press or not and what kind of offense we’ll run.

“I like what I’ve seen so far. We’re a scrappy group but we’re having a little trouble putting the ball in the basket.”

Without McKinney, Peninsula has relied on guard Jill Kennedy, the team’s top reserve last season, forward Ashley Burt and guard-forward Joanna Whitley.

“Our seniors this year lost no games as juniors, two as sophomores, and one on the junior varsity as freshmen,” Yoshida said. “We’ve won close to 100 (games), so they expect to go out and win. They’re used to winning and it will help us come together as a team.

“Success is contagious, they don’t want to be on the team that breaks the tradition, so to speak.”

Morningside’s boys won the state championship in Sacramento with a 79-72 victory over Monterey Seaside in March.

The Monarchs lose only one starter, center Pauliasi Taulava, and return all-state guard Stais Boseman, a 6-foot-4 senior who averaged 17.7 points last season.

“We want the Summer Games to be a learning experience, but I know the kids are more concerned about winning than working on one particular area or phase of the game,” Morningside Coach Carl Franklin said. “The reality in looking at this team is that we will be recognized as a team that’s talented. At least five of our players will be heavily recruited.”

Franklin cited Boseman along with forward Corey Saffold, guard Donminic Ellison, swingman Dwight Curry and point guard Sean Harris as players who likely will be watched by college scouts.

Franklin said his team enjoyed the publicity that came from winning the first state boys’ basketball championship in school history. Franklin said former Morningside standouts and current Lakers Byron Scott and Elden Campbell are helping to pay for championship rings for the players.

In other sports, the following South Bay teams resume competition in the Summer Games on Saturday: Mary Star’s softball team plays Taft and City Section 4-A Division champion San Pedro meets Royal in 1 p.m quarterfinal games at Peninsula. The winners meet Sunday in the semifinals at 11 a.m. at Compton College.

The Torrance girls’ soccer team, defending Southern Section 3-A champion, plays Burbank Burroughs at 9 a.m. at Balboa Park in Encino. At 10:30, Peninsula meets Canyon of Country Canyon.

Mira Costa and El Segundo will meet Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in the water polo consolation final at Compton College.