Hartman Laments Sad Ending

Jason Hartman, Thousand Oaks High’s standout senior forward, cried while sitting on the bench during the closing moments of the Lancers’ 57-52 road loss to Westlake last week.

Hartman suffered a neck injury (X-rays since proved negative) late in the game, but that is not why tears filled his eyes.

“I was crying because of how we’ve been playing,” Hartman said. “It’s been kind of frustrating.”

The Lancers, who have won three consecutive league titles, dropped their first two league games after winning all 14 last season. In each loss, Thousand Oaks squandered large leads in the fourth quarter.

Thousand Oaks held a 45-35 advantage against Westlake, but was outscored, 22-7, in the fourth quarter.

The Lancers opened the league schedule with a 41-36 setback to Agoura. The Chargers trailed, 27-18, entering the fourth quarter but outscored Thousand Oaks, 23-9.

“We just haven’t been scoring enough,” said Hartman, who leads the Lancers with 18.3 points and 12.5 rebounds per game. “We have some young guys and I’m trying to keep them involved (in the offense), but I might have to pick up the scoring a little bit. We’ve got to hang on to leads in the fourth.”

Hartman scored 31 points in the Lancers’ 89-55 rout of Channel Islands on Monday night. Thousand Oaks improved to 10-5, 1-2 in league play.

CHANNEL LEAGUE

TIMELY TALK

Last week, Rio Mesa Coach Steve Wolf was forced to concentrate less on basketball and more on stopping fights during practices.

Frustration stemming from many close losses led to finger pointing and shouting among teammates. Rio Mesa (3-9, 1-2 in league play) has lost five games by three points or fewer.

“We had some internal bickering,” Wolf said. “When you lose as many close games as we have, guys are going to start losing confidence and getting down on one another.

“I told them to start putting the team ahead of their own concerns about who’s getting the most playing time and things like that. I hoped clearing the air would help.”

So far, so good: Rio Mesa defeated San Marcos on Monday night, 68-52.

*

Entering the season, Buena Coach Glen Hannah said he expected a lot from senior forward Robbie Knight.

So far, Knight has performed better than Hannah thought possible.

Knight (6-4) is among the area’s scoring leaders with an average of 22.3 points. He also leads the Bulldogs in rebounding (7.8), steals (2.6) and blocked shots (1.2).

Last season, Knight averaged 12.5 points and 8.2 rebounds.

Now if only the rest of Hannah’s players can do the same: Buena is 7-6, 2-1 in league play.

MISSION LEAGUE

UPHILL CLIMB

Where is the fire marshal when you need him?

Harvard-Westlake basketball Coach Greg Hilliard figured the crowd that packed the school’s gym for last Friday’s game against Loyola was the biggest in his nine years as a Wolverine coach.

All four sections of the bleachers were filled midway through the junior varsity game. By the time the varsity game started, fans were seated two-deep on the floor in front of the bleachers, just a few feet from the sideline.

One downside to such a huge crowd was parking, which is difficult to find during a normal day at the Studio City school, nestled in the hills along Coldwater Canyon Boulevard.

“I think I parked in Woodland Hills,” one fan said.

The other damper was the final score. Harvard lost for the first time this season, 62-53.

*

The Wolverine fans spent most of the night chanting “overrated, overrated,” referring to Loyola’s 6-foot-5, UCLA-bound guard, Toby Bailey. When Bailey took over the fourth quarter to lead the Cubs to the victory, Loyola fans responded with chants of “overpriced, overpriced.”

Harvard’s tuition is about $10,000 a year.

EAST VALLEY LEAGUE

NO THANKS, WE’LL PASS

North Hollywood had an opportunity last week to add 6-foot-7 Taft transfer Johnny Williams to an already talented squad, but after some investigation and discussion, Coach Steve Miller passed.

“I personally made the decision,” Miller said. “I’m not going to allow him to play because I feel that the problems he’s had. . . . I think there’s a time and a place you gotta say, ‘Hey, you can’t keep doing this.’ ”

Williams, who had several disciplinary problems at Taft, was expelled for fighting shortly before the season opener and is now enrolled at North Hollywood. The City Section last fall passed a rule under which athletes sent to another school for disciplinary reasons are automatically ineligible to play. However, if Williams moves into the North Hollywood attendance area, he immediately would be eligible under state rules, City Commissioner Barbara Fiege said.

Miller telephoned Taft Coach Jim Woodard last week to discuss the particulars of Williams’ expulsion. After that and a discussion with Dave Smith, an assistant principal at North Hollywood, Miller decided against taking Williams.

“He’s got a future in front of him and he needs to know it’s time to stop,” Miller said. “He’s been given a lot of chances.”

*

North Hollywood’s Damon Ollie was the leading rebounder among players from 36 teams in the Las Vegas tournament last month. Ollie, a 6-foot-5 senior center who is averaging 14.8 rebounds in 12 games, grabbed 45 rebounds in three games.

“He’s a man,” Coach Steve Miller said. “He rebounds like a fiend. Once he gets his hands on the ball, you can forget it. He doesn’t drop it.”

*

Basketball teams at North Hollywood and Van Nuys have been given a clean bill of health after being directed by the City Section to conduct internal investigations regarding the alleged recruitment of former Banning standout Kenny Washington.

Washington, who was declared ineligible last fall after he falsified an address change in an attempt to transfer to Fremont, told the coaching staff at Banning that he had been recruited by a handful of schools.

Washington told Banning coaches he was contacted by representatives of North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Crenshaw, Washington and Fremont highs. Banning Coach Marc Paez, who formerly coached at Cleveland, supplied the City athletics office with a list of the player’s allegations.

As a result, Fiege last month directed administrators at the five schools to investigate the charges. And the verdict:

“None of them has ever heard of Kenny Washington,” Fiege said.

Fiege said she considers the matter closed. Washington is appealing his eligibility ruling.

GOLDEN LEAGUE

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Go for four in ‘94?

Not so fast.

Quartz Hill, which has won or shared three consecutive league titles, isn’t in the running for a championship this season. In fact, making the playoffs seems a tall order. The Rebels have struggled to a 1-8 start entering the week and were winless in league at 0-5.

The season might have ended before it really began.

“We knew we weren’t going to be real strong coming off summer league,” Coach Steve Hurst said. “Then we lost a couple of guys and that really hurt.”

Frankie Aguilar, perhaps the team’s best returning player, suffered a broken hand a few days before the season opener, and another starter, Zamien Calvin, was ruled academically ineligible.

No Quartz Hill player has a double-figure scoring average.

*

Senior guard Derrick Barker of Antelope Valley had a shadow last Friday night, and his name was Jerome Payton.

Barker, who entered the game averaging 21.4 points, scored one basket and finished with seven points as Palmdale won, 75-53.

“Everywhere he went, I went,” Payton said of his man-to-man assignment. “I had to stick with him because he can light it up.”

Payton, a 5-foot-10 point guard who averages 10.5 points and 4.7 assists, is one of several Palmdale players who come at the opposition in waves. The Falcons might not be particularly tall--the starting five range in height from Payton to 6-3 Al Lairson--but there are plenty of them from which to choose.

A deep bench helps Palmdale, which runs a motion offense and numerous presses.

“I think we have five guys on the bench who could start for any other team in the Golden League,” Payton said.

*

Predictably, Pharoah Davis is drawing a crowd.

The Highland standout, one of the region’s best players, is dangerous when he gets his mitts on the ball. Unfortunately, everyone knows it.

“He isn’t even shooting 20 times a game,” Coach Tom Mahan said. “He has to kick it back out (to the perimeter players).”

Davis, who has a scholarship offer from San Diego State, makes the most of his shots, however. He has made 47 of 90 from the floor (52.2%) in league play and is averaging 20.1 points overall. The best thing is, the players he passes to aren’t bad, either.

Jamal Dedeaux (13.5 average) and Lee Guilbeau (10.0) give the Bulldogs the most potent scoring trio in the league.

*

Forward John George of Littlerock prefers to work hard for his supper. George, a junior and one of the High Desert’s best players, has a better shooting percentage from the field than he does from the free-throw line.

The 6-4 1/2 center-forward has made 89 of 144 shots from the field (61.8%) and 44 of 73 from the line (60.3%).

NORTHWEST VALLEY

SAVING THE WORST FOR LAST

For Taft, it was another tale of two halves. As in have and have not .

Taft (9-6) held an 11-point lead at halftime last week in its conference opener against Granada Hills but collapsed thereafter. Granada Hills rallied for a 74-71 victory and its second conference victory in three seasons.

It marked the fourth time in as many losses the Toreadors blew a halftime lead. In the three other defeats, the intermission margins were of nine, nine and four points.

“I have no bench,” Taft Coach Jim Woodard said. “Fatigue is a big, big factor.”

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

TOO MUCH HART

If someone had told Saugus Coach Eric Olsson his Saugus team would hold No. 1 Hart to 34 points last week, Olsson probably would have licked his chops. The Centurion defense did its job but Saugus lost, 34-28, after leading by as many as nine points in the second half.

“We had ‘em beat,” Olsson said. “It was a game we controlled the whole way until the end. But once they caught us they spread the floor and made us foul them. They’re a good free-throw shooting team. For us, it was a lack of offensive production in the second half.”

Hart shot 29% from the floor, but Saugus shot only 28%.

Hart Coach Mike May values a special team statistic: contested shots. The goal for each game is for Hart to contest at least 80% of the opposition’s shots.

The way Hart plays defense, 34 points is usually enough. Two days after the Saugus game, the Indians held Canyon to 16% shooting from the field. No. 10 Canyon, which averaged 81 points during a recent eight-game winning streak, made only one basket in the final 20 minutes 50 seconds of the game.

AROUND THE LEAGUES . . .

* The opening round of Northwest Valley Conference play wasn’t kind to the four schools that play in the 4-A Division West Valley League. Teams in the 3-A North Valley League--the lower of the City Section’s two divisions--won three of four games.

Surprisingly, it was Kennedy--the only team from the West Valley with a losing record--that recorded the lone victory for the 4-A entries. Kennedy beat El Camino Real, 44-34.

* Chatsworth (8-7) is close to having five players with double-digit scoring averages. Eddie Miller is at 16.3, Trenell Floyd 14.7, Marcel Wilson 10.5, Jerome Joseph 10.2 and Tariq Hill 9.9.

* Sylmar is the biggest surprise of the Valley Pac-8 Conference basketball season. The Spartans (3-0 in conference play) have won more conference games than any other team. Conference foes Grant and North Hollywood are each 2-0. Sylmar (8-6) is off to its finest start in several years. The Spartans have not win more than four games in each of the past four seasons.

* L.A. Baptist is off to its second best start in Coach Maury Neville’s 16-year tenure. The Knights (10-3) started 11-3 in 1987-88.

* North Hollywood guard Arthur Lee is shooting 81.6% (31 of 38) from the free-throw line.

* Moorpark’s Mike McKenzie, who stands only 5-10 and didn’t figure prominently in Coach Tim Bednar’s preseason outlook, has 74 rebounds in 15 games--an average of 4.9.

* Thousand Oaks soccer player James Pashley scored five goals and had two assists in victories last week against Channel Islands, Agoura and Westlake.

Basketball Top 10

Rankings of Valley-area high schools by sportswriters of The Times:

Rk LW Team League W-L 1 1 Hart Foothill 18-1 2 2 Reseda North Valley 13-0 3 4 North Hollywood East Valley 7-5 4 5 Palmdale Golden 12-3 5 3 Harvard-Westlake Mission 13-1 6 7 Glendale Pacific 14-4 7 8 St. Francis Del Rey 12-4 8 9 Westlake Marmonte 9-2 9 6 Simi Valley Marmonte 11-4 10 NR Canyon Foothill 14-5