HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE ELLING : Focus on Refs, Reinstatement of Coach Upstage a Title Decider

If it were a serial, it would qualify as a soap opera. If it were a cereal, it would be Froot Loops.

But this was boys’ basketball between Muir and Crescenta Valley highs--the sequel.

Trying to pinpoint the plot in Friday’s game between the two was a tad difficult. Even the morning after his team’s 71-56 loss at Muir, Crescenta Valley Coach John Goffredo was in a fog.

“It was beyond bizarre,” he said.

For Crescenta Valley, a victory meant a share of the Pacific League title. For Muir, a win meant a championship. Yet in terms of marquee value, the pursuit of the title was dwarfed by other developments. Game, what game?

The plot thickens beyond mere hardwood and floor burns. When Muir Coach Bill (Rocky) Moore, formerly of Alemany, walked into the gym, he was given a rousing greeting by fans and students. Some, to be sure, were surprised to see him.

Moore had been placed on administrative leave by school officials last week while police investigated whether he had physically abused two players. A videotape reportedly showed Moore roughing up one of his players during a student-faculty game last June.

Muir officials said Friday that Moore was reinstated after being cleared by the Pasadena Unified School District and police.

But the ultimate plot twist, the meat-and-potatoes issue, involved the men in black and white. Unfortunately, we’re not referring to the referees’ striped shirts.

Last week, by Southern Section mandate, one of two white officials originally scheduled to work the game was replaced by a black official.

It seems that a Muir booster who witnessed Crescenta Valley’s 74-72 victory over visiting Muir last month complained that a white official showed favoritism during the game and demanded corrective action. Muir is a predominantly black school, Crescenta Valley is primarily white.

Charles Johnson, a retired attorney from Pasadena who has seen hundreds of Muir games since 1950, wrote to the section and a meeting was convened between section and Muir officials. Johnson said Saturday that he did not expect the section to do the knee-jerk, politically correct thing. He merely sought a review of one official’s behavior.

The section went a step further and assured Muir officials that, when possible, it would attempt to assign racially mixed crews to games involving predominantly black and white schools.

However, to assign officials based on race casts aspersions on the integrity of the officials themselves, Johnson said.

“It impinges upon the integrity of all referees,” he said.

Imagine what it must have been like for Andrew Ewing, the black official assigned to work the game. No matter what Ewing did, someone questioned his motives.

Case in point: Overheard by a reporter in the stands were two fans, one of whom said to the other, “He’s your ref.”

Hope he was kidding. Yours, ours, mine, theirs. It isn’t supposed to work this way. The second referee undoubtedly felt the closer scrutiny as well.

Before things were barely under way, Ewing was getting an earful. At one point in the first quarter, Goffredo heard Ewing instruct the overly demonstrative Muir scorekeeper to pipe down. Goffredo was astounded by what followed.

“The black referee was told off by the scorekeeper,” Goffredo recalled. “The ref said, ‘You must be impartial.’ And the scorekeeper verbally assaulted him and pointed a finger at the guy.

“I couldn’t believe the ref didn’t do anything about it.”

Then, there was the game itself. Fifty fouls were called--or one every 40 seconds--including 29 against Muir. In the previous meeting, 28 fouls were called, 22 against Muir. So much for progress.

During the third quarter, Crescenta Valley guard Adam Jacobsen was intentionally punched in the mouth, Goffredo said, but the officials missed it.

Crescenta Valley might have entered the week ranked ninth in the state in Division II, but the Falcons (19-4) finished third in league play behind Muir and Pasadena and probably will pay the price when the section playoff pairings are issued today.

Like any head-spinning night, sometimes everything doesn’t quite register until the drive home. That, in itself, hardly went off without a hitch, though hitch is what the team nearly was forced to do.

When the Crescenta Valley entourage walked into the parking lot after the game, Goffredo learned that four cars--three belonging to Falcon fans--had their windows smashed.

“Nice ending,” Goffredo deadpanned.