Johnson & Johnson Score a City 4-A First

Kristaan Johnson, son of former UCLA and NBA star Marques Johnson, was voted City Section 4-A Division Player of the Year, marking the first time that a father and son have received the basketball honor.

Marques Johnson, who also played at Crenshaw, was named City Player of the Year in 1973.

Kristaan Johnson, a 6-foot-5 junior center, averaged 22.6 points and 14 rebounds for the Cougars, who won the State Division I championship March 20. Teammate Tremaine Fowlkes, a 6-6 forward, also was selected to the first team.

Senior guards Kenya Wilkins and Davy Fortson were selected from Dorsey, which lost to Crenshaw in the City final. Wilkins, who signed early with Oregon, averaged 19.1 points and Fortson averaged 21.2.

Also selected to the City 4-A team were Manual Arts guard Troy Matthews; Washington forward Dayron Harris; South Gate guard Eric Wright; Fremont guard Ricky Brown and Locke guard Demetrius Nettles.

Garfield center Alex Gomez, Lincoln guard Ruben Castellanos and Jefferson guard Anthony Martin were selected to the City 3-A team. Banning center Bryan Hill was named the 3-A Player of the Year.

Girls’ basketball--Crenshaw point guard Cathleen Grice and Kennedy’s Shaneya Harris shared the title of City 4-A girls’ Player of the Year.

Grice, a 5-6 senior, helped Crenshaw (25-3) go undefeated against City competition en route to the 4-A championship, averaging 19.3 points and 7.2 assists.

Denise Caudillo of Roosevelt, Michelle Gonzalez of South Gate and Ice Lincoln of Dorsey were among the players to earn All-City honors for the second consecutive season.

April Adams of Washington, Kim Howse of Crenshaw and Sheila Paige of Fremont were also chosen to the 4-A team.

Shonte Tippie, who guided Jefferson to the 3-A championship, was named the 3-A Player of the Year. Tippie, a senior who averaged 28 points, was named along with teammates Chaka Smith and Kyetra Brown to the first team.

Ronneka Taylor of Manual Arts and Deana Duran of Garfield were also 3-A first-team selections.

Add awards--City Times will announce its all-star high school basketball teams in the April 11 edition. Ten boys and 10 girls will be selected from the area’s City and Southern Section schools. The players will be honored at an awards banquet April 18 at the University Hilton. The Most Valuable Players and Coaches of the Year will also be announced at the banquet.

Everything to win--The Jefferson girls’ basketball team is still enjoying the spoils of winning its first girls’ City basketball title since the school opened in 1916.

A banner commemorating the team’s championship has been made and each team member was awarded a watch. The school also purchased new uniforms and warm-ups.

“Everybody is excited because nothing like this has ever happened at the school,” Jefferson Coach Curtis Hughes said.

Add Jefferson--Helen Ruano, a two-time Eastern League selection, has made a verbal commitment to play basketball at Loyola Marymount. A 5-8 forward, Ruano averaged 10 points and nearly five blocks to help Jefferson (25-3) win 17 of its last 18 games.

Head start--Rosa Cazares, a cross-country runner who helped Cal State Los Angeles to its fifth Top 10 national finish in seven seasons this fall, has been named to the NCAA Division II Academic All-American team.

Cazares, a graduate of South Gate High, has a 3.44 grade-point average and recently completed her bachelor’s degree in Spanish. She is working on a master’s degree in teaching English as a Second Language.

She finished sixth in the Division II Far Western Regional State championships at Portland State in November and ranks sixth on Cal State L.A.’s all-time 5,000-meter list.

College basketball--Cal State L.A. basketball players Derek Knowles and Pamm Ross have been selected to the All-California Collegiate Athletic Assn. second team.

Ross, a junior 5-9 forward, averaged 19.3 points and 8.4 rebounds, shooting 47.4% from the field and scoring 20 or more points in seven CCAA games.

She had a season-high 30 points and 20 rebounds for Cal State L.A. (5-21) against Cal State Dominguez Hills. Ross, who scored in double figures in 11 conference games, also had 28 points, 11 rebounds and five steals in a victory over Chapman.

Knowles, a 6-4 senior forward, helped the Golden Eagles to their best start in more than a decade. Cal State L.A (14-11) won 10 of its first 12 games and came within a game of qualifying for the CCAA tournament.

Knowles was chosen as the CCAA Player of the Week after scoring 30 points against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and 23 against Cal State Bakersfield during the second round of conference play.

A second-team all-conference selection last season, Knowles averaged 18.4 points and 4.4 rebounds. He scored in double figures in all but two CCAA games. He shot 52.3% from the floor and 44.3% from three-point range, making 43 of 97 attempts. He scored in double figures in 22 of 25 games, including the first 12 of the season.

Add basketball--Sophomore guards Isaac Burton of East Los Angeles College and Eric Fuller of Trade Tech were selected last week to the Community College State basketball team by a coaches panel. Roddie Anderson of Columbia and Calvin Curry of Ventura were selected the Co-Players of the Year.