Fans Put Team Down for Count

That wasn’t a typographical error. The Alemany High boys’ basketball team really lost, 43-13, to St. Bernard last week.

For some reason, Coach Robert Webb’s players couldn’t seem to understand patience on offense, so he forced it on them. Against St. Bernard, he required the players to make 10 passes before they could take a shot.

“The fans were counting (the passes),” Webb said. “The fans were booing us. That’s a nice home-court advantage for you. It’s not what everyone wants to see, but when you are dealing with what I am dealing with, you have to.”

In the first quarter, an Alemany player stepped to the free-throw line and an elderly fan stood up and yelled at Webb, “You’re not going to let him shoot that, are you?”

Webb, who is 25 and in his first season as a head coach at any level, said his players now understand the need for patience and he has relaxed the mandatory 10-pass rule, but he still wants to keep games as slow as possible for the 3-11 Indians.

“You may think I’m nuts, but it was working,” Webb said. “We executed our offense. I was very happy with 12-6 at halftime against (St. Bernard). That half was a moral victory for us. The reality is you do what you have to do to stay in the game.

“People who don’t understand the game think I’m an idiot and some people who do understand basketball think I’m an idiot.”

TRI-VALLEY LEAGUE

Heart, Soul, Knee

The Tri-Valley figured to be a two-team race between Oak Park and St. Bonaventure. But since the Seraphs lost their point guard to a serious knee injury, it has been all Oak Park.

Scott Dunst, a 6-foot senior who was a second-team all-league selection last season, is recovering from reconstructive surgery after suffering torn ligaments in his right knee while making a layup against Providence. St. Bonaventure (8-5) was 3-0 at that point, but the Seraphs have dropped five of 10 since losing what Coach Marc Groff called the heart and soul of his team.

“He was one of those enthusiastic, fiery, competitive kids,” Groff said of Dunst, who was averaging 10 points a game when he was injured. “We’re not playing with the same enthusiasm now. We’re just quiet kids without Scott. You can’t coach enthusiasm. You can’t make kids breathe fire.

“It’s hard to put into words the abstract things a kid gives you. They don’t show up in statistics. But Scott was our on-floor coach.”

FRONTIER LEAGUE

No Fun for Sebek

Mark Sebek set Nordhoff’s single-game scoring record this season with 40 points against St. Bonaventure. He is the second all-time leading scorer at the school, and he averages 25.3 points per game. But for Sebek, basketball games have been about as enjoyable as midterm exams because the Rangers are struggling at 4-10, 0-2 in league play.

“We’ve lost some easy games, and some close games that we should have won easily,” said Sebek, a senior guard. “I’m not used to losing so much.”

Sebek said Nordhoff is switching from a man-to-man defense to a zone this week, in part because its players have trouble matching other teams’ size and quickness.

With his shooting prowess, does Sebek feel pressure to carry Nordhoff’s scoring load?

“A little pressure,” he said. “I don’t want to shoot as much as I am.”

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Moorpark has taken a “bomb’s-away” approach to the season by launching 210 three-point shots, an average of 14 per game. The Musketeers have hit 39% of their long shots, led by senior guard Micah Hanson, who has made 40 of 101 (39.6%).

Center Jeff Barry (14-34) and forward Mike Newbill (12-29) are most successful from long range, each shooting 41%.

Around the Leagues . . .

* Reseda has jumped out of the gate with a record of 14-0, but the team has some work remaining if it expects to be considered the best in school history. The Regents finished with a mark of 24-1 in 1982-83 under Coach Bill Hughes and defeated Canoga Park in the City Section 3-A Division final, 54-41. Reseda also won the championship the following year.

* Oak Park has four starters averaging in double figures in scoring after 15 games: Shawn Williams (16 points), Brandon Creason (14), Ryan Garth (12.9) and Nick Rattray (11.6).

* Until last week’s 49-39 loss to Santa Clara, Oak Park had a 5-0 record against Frontier League teams. The Eagles had beaten Calabasas, Moorpark (twice), Nordhoff and Santa Paula by an average of 14 points.

* El Camino Real senior Charles Adams, an All-City Section selection, leads the team in free-throw percentage. However, Adams made only 18 of 39 (46.2%) from the line entering play this week.

* Thousand Oaks forward Jason Hartman leads the Marmonte League in rebounding with an average of 12.4, and 6-11 center Paul Brandt leads the league in blocked shots (2.3).

* Rio Mesa forward Dorian Carson leads the Channel League in rebounding average (10.2).

* All but two of the 23 goals scored by the Sylmar boys’ soccer team have been put in the net by someone named Cabrera. There are four Cabreras on the team: Gubini, Saul, Israel and Juan Carlos. The last three are brothers.

* St. Genevieve has moved its scheduled home games from Birmingham High because Coach Dan Donovan no longer wants to use the school’s old gym, which is small and has a leaky roof. The Valiants’ games are being played at various Valley schools such as Notre Dame and Alemany.

Kennedy Cosgrove and staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Dana Haddad and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.