L.A. WATTS SUMMER GAMES : Future Bright for Notre Dame

After taking its share of lumps last season, the Notre Dame High boys’ basketball team appears capable of inflicting serious damage on the opposition in the upcoming school year.

The Knights struggled to a 10-15 record and a sixth-place finish in the Mission League last season, but better times appear ahead for Notre Dame, which advanced to the semifinals of the L.A. Watts Summer Games that concluded Sunday.

Notre Dame defeated Crenshaw, 59-27, and two-time defending City Section 4-A Division champion Westchester, 53-50, in fourth-round and quarterfinal games Saturday at Jordan High, before losing to Long Beach Jordan, 55-45, in a semifinal Sunday at Compton College.

“I thought we’d be pretty good because we had everybody coming back,” Coach Mick Cady said. “But I wasn’t sure how the team would play considering it was their first tournament of the year.”

With all five starters returning, including 6-foot-6 senior Monte Marcaccini, Notre Dame had the nucleus for a quality team.

When Craig Johnson transferred to Notre Dame from San Jose Archbishop Mitty, and highly regarded freshman-to-be Eddie Miller of Nobel Junior High declared his intention to go to the Sherman Oaks school, the Knights’ stock rose further.

“We were looking pretty good already,” Cady said. “And getting a couple of new kids didn’t hurt. It kind of made the team complete.”

Johnson is a 6-2 senior guard and Miller is a 6-5 forward, but Cady said the offense will revolve around Marcaccini, who averaged 21.4 points and 11.5 rebounds a game last season.

“He’s the best player in the Valley and one of the top three or four forwards in Southern California,” Cady said. “He’s having one hell of a summer.”

Notre Dame, which advanced to the semifinals of the Southern Section Division III-A playoffs in 1990 and ‘91, should get stronger in the fall when Tom Stillwell, a 6-8 center-forward who is playing club volleyball this summer, returns to the team.

“We have a bona fide super player in Monte, and he’s surrounded by some pretty good players,” Cady said. “We should be pretty tough.”

Young Raiders: Don’t get Channel Islands girls’ basketball Coach Ryle Lynch-Cole wrong. He was pleased with the Raiders’ championship performance in the Watts Games, but he would have liked to have seen how they stacked up against Southern Section powers Peninsula and Lynwood.

Those two teams advanced to the fourth round of the tournament, but forfeited games Saturday because several of their players had prior commitments.

“You always want to play the best and see where you stand against them,” Lynch-Cole said. “So I was a little frustrated we didn’t get to play either of them.”

Channel Islands defeated Rancho Alamitos, 77-44, in the final Sunday at Compton College, after beating Dorsey, 56-24, in a semifinal earlier in the day.

The Raiders, who have eight juniors-to-be and only two seniors, posted victories over Morningside (49-33) and Millikan (41-40) on Saturday at St. Bernard High.

“We’re real young, and we’re still learning to play together,” Lynch-Cole said. “That was the rewarding thing about this tournament, to see everyone play so well as a team.”

Shawanda Hotchkiss, a 5-4 junior, was named the tournament’s most valuable player, but Lynch-Cole said junior Delores Tuimoloau, a 6-0 forward/center, and senior Allison Jones, a 5-8 forward, also stood out for the Raiders, who finished third behind Thousand Oaks and Westlake in the Marmonte League last season.

Add Channel Islands: Lynch-Cole is a big proponent of the Watts Games and its goal of bringing together players from different ethnic and economic backgrounds.

“I hope they never stop having them,” he said. “I think the reasons behind them are great.”

Although there is no lack of ethnic diversity on Channel Islands’ team, which includes whites, blacks, Filipinos, Samoans and Chicanos, Lynch-Cole said it “was nice to see kids from the farms interacting with kids from the inner city.”

Making progress: The Kennedy seven-on-seven football team defeated highly regarded Hart, 13-6, in a semifinal Sunday at Compton College, but lost to Locke, 26-20, in overtime later in the day in the final.

The Golden Cougars, who outscored their opposition, 127-66, during this year’s tournament, advanced to the 1989 final before losing to North Torrance, 27-26, on the next-to-last play of the game.

Kennedy and host Hart are two of the 16 teams entered in the Hart passing league tournament July 11.

Running Braves: Two veterans and a newcomer helped propel Birmingham to the boys’ title in the track and field competition Saturday at USC’s Cromwell Field.

Junior Tony Serpas won the 100 meters in 11.23 seconds, finished second in the 200 in 22.77, and ran the anchor legs on the third-place 400-meter relay team (45.03) and the victorious 1,600 relay team (3:43.94).

Sophomore teammate James Lincoln placed second in the high jump by clearing 6 feet 4 inches.

Sophomore Keyote Gilmore was the big surprise for the Braves, leaping a personal best of 21-10 1/4 to place second in the long jump.

Gilmore moved to 10th on this year’s regional list.