Marina Can’t Keep Up With Jones & Co.

Pete Bonny envisioned wondrous things for his Marina girls’ basketball team Tuesday night. Unfortunately for Marina, Bonny will have to keep on wondering.

For the second consecutive year, the Vikings fell to top-seeded Thousand Oaks in a Southern Section Division I-A semifinal, losing, 65-42, at Edison High School. Although the game had its high points for Marina--especially considering that last year’s loss was by 41--Bonny wasn’t in the mood to look on the bright side.

“I envisioned us running off the court with the greatest upset,” he said, staring a hole in the court. “But . . . they did to us what we usually do to other people.”

If Bonny was looking for positives, he might have checked out the scorebook. Thousand Oaks might have dominated throughout the game, but its marquee player, Marion Jones, was held to a so-so performance, at least by superstar standards. Jones, a 5-foot-10 senior center, scored 18 points--five below her average. She received three fouls in the first quarter, forcing her to play tentatively, at least for her.

After all, this is the same Marion Jones described as “the Michael Jordan of high school girls’ basketball,” by Brea-Olinda Coach Mark Trakh. The same Jones who draws raves every time she sets foot on a basketball court. The same Jones who--cover your ears, Marina--considers basketball to be her second-best sport.

Of course, if you saw her fly down a track, you would know why. Jones, 17, came within one place of making the U.S. Olympic track and field team last summer. She was fourth in the women’s 200-meter trials--only three make the team. How does all this speed help her basketball game? Imagine the Roadrunner with a finely tuned jump shot. Get the picture?

Bonny had heard all this and more. But he vowed not to be taken in by the Marion Jones hoopla. She’s only one player, he said before the game. Thousand Oaks isn’t a one-dimensional team. We have to play five on five.

Brea, of course, said the same thing two months ago when it met Jones and Co. in the championship game of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions. The Ladycats, playing their supercharged pressure defense, burned mega-calories chasing Jones around the court. The result? Jones scored 38 points--including the final 10--to lead her team to a 59-51 victory.

“I don’t even think our kids remember what she looks like,” Trakh said a few days later. “All they remember about Marion Jones is a big blur.”

Actually, they remember more than that. And this, Marina, is something to pay attention to. Sure, Thousand Oaks beat you big, but at least you don’t have to live your lives under the shadow of the Snack Stand Swat--a move so unbelievable, Trakh said it will go down in Ladycat lore. Jones apparently blocked a shot with such force, the ball smashed into the gymnasium snack bar, destroying every edible in sight. Hot dogs, Trakh said, were splattered all over the place. The Snack Stand Swat was born.

Nothing so dramatic happened Tuesday. Jones simply started with a blocked shot, a full-court pass that led to a layup, two rebounds, a steal and a beautiful inside basket . . . all in the first two minutes. After that, inspiration to be Super Marion must have dwindled. Sure, she hit a pair of three-pointers late in the first half, but with a 48-25 lead, her team didn’t need her on anything but cruise control. So she graced the game with several nice assists instead.

“She was drilling threes, getting offensive boards . . . our goal was to get two charges (called) on her,” Bonny said. “But she did a great job dishing off. She’s a great athlete . . . “

The kind that might leave you wondering.