Officially, Half-Hour Wait Was Too Long

Instead of a player or coach losing his cool, it was the officials who grew impatient before the start of a boys’ high school basketball game last Friday.

The Southern Section playoff game between Kern Valley of Lake Isabella and Verbum Dei was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. at Compton College. But by 8, there was no sign of Kern Valley.

Unwilling to wait any longer, the officials decided to leave, and told Verbum Dei administrators the game would go down as a forfeit. Kern Valley showed up 10 minutes later.

Mike Kearney, Verbum Dei’s coach, said there was a miscommunication between the schools. Kern Valley thought the game was to be played on Verbum Dei’s campus in Watts.

“When they got to Verbum Dei, there was no one there,” Kearney said. “They called The Times and were told to go to Compton College. There was definitely some heated discussion when they finally arrived.”

Kearney said two fans in attendance also did officiating and they went home to get their uniforms. Some other officials working a high school game at nearby Gardena Serra also stopped by. Uncertain of what to do, however, the schools decided to try and reschedule the first-round game.

“The bottom line is that the officials should have waited for at least an hour,” said Dean Crowley, Southern Section commissioner. “I’ve officiated a lot of games over the years, and I would never leave after just a half-hour.”

Kern Valley is located near the Sequoia National Forest, 40 miles northeast of Bakersfield. The school was not excited about making another three-hour trip for nothing, so as a compromise the makeup game will be played tonight at Arvin High outside Bakersfield.

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In one nightmarish week last December, Coach Brian Breslin of Bellflower St. John Bosco thought that a promising boys’ basketball season had quickly passed by with the loss of three key players.

The problems started on a Monday morning when Schea Cotton, a starting guard, told Breslin he was transferring to Santa Ana Mater Dei. Cotton is considered one of the area’s top prospects.

Later that day, Joe Samson, a sophomore forward and the team’s top reserve, suffered a stress fracture in his left foot and was sidelined indefinitely.

Then, Eddie Ramirez, a starting guard, suffered a separated shoulder in a tournament game against Tustin later that week and was declared sidelined for the season.

“We lost three of our top six players in four days,” said Breslin, in his third year at the school. “Physically, we were really hurting, and emotionally the kids were drained. The Cotton transfer hurt the most. The team felt betrayed because they thought a player who started the season should stick it out.”

Breslin’s worst fears proved unfounded, however. His top player, senior Jelani Gardner, was moved from guard to small forward and he responded by averaging nearly 30 points. The Braves also benefited from the transfer of sophomore forward Brian Johnson, who moved from Long Beach St. Anthony. Samson also recently returned from his injury.

St. John Bosco, 22-2 last season, is 24-2 after a first-round playoff victory over West Torrance in II-A, and plays La Mirada tonight at Biola College.

“There was a lot of anger for a while,” Breslin said. “But we shuffled things around and made changes. Once the kids got used to our new system and kept winning, they were happy.”

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The Southland’s top boys’ and girls’ basketball teams should spend less time worrying about rankings and more time concentrating on sportsmanship.

Lopsided scores are becoming more routine as national polls continue to increase in popularity. Last week’s results were further proof.

Mater Dei’s boys defeated Irvine, 94-45, and El Monte Arroyo, 90-39, in playoff games. Crenshaw’s 118-80 victory over Dorsey marked the 11th time this season the Cougars have scored more than 100 points.

Brea-Olinda’s girls opened the playoffs with a 90-36 victory over Fullerton, while Lynwood defeated Santa Monica, 84-4.

All four winners are ranked by USA Today. Coaches for each team will claim that they cleared the bench and tried to keep the score down, but they are not doing enough. If they anticipate a rout, they should bring up some junior varsity players. They should call off the press early and go into a delay game in the second half.

There is no need for margins of 60, 70 or 80 points or more.

Another example is the St. Bernard girls, who are coming off a 106-16 victory over Cerritos Whitney Friday. They led, 37-0, after the first quarter.

This is not what high school basketball is all about.

Prep Notes

There were few surprises in the opening week of the Southern Section basketball playoffs; all of the top-seeded teams survived. Newhall Hart’s boys, seeded second in Division I-A, lost to Palmdale, 65-59, Saturday. Two No. 2-seeded girls’ team also lost. In I-A, Oxnard Channel Islands was upset by Cerritos, 55-52, and Newbury Park surprised Inglewood Morningside, 42-32, in III-AA.

Because of student unrest on the Paramount campus last Friday, the school had to call off a boys’ soccer playoff game against Los Alamitos. The game was moved to Los Alamitos on Saturday morning, and Paramount won, 2-0. The Pirates will play at Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley today.

Casey Strand, a senior at Pleasant Hill College Park High in Northern California, set a national wrestling record Saturday for most victories in a career. His 19-4 technical fall victory over Ken Lawson of Clayton Valley in the 189-pound final of a league tournament gave him 218. That broke the record of 217 set by Matthew Brady of Kearsley High in Flint, Mich., in 1988-91. Strand is 53-0 this season. The State tournament is March 4-5 at University of Pacific in Stockton.

Times’ Top 20 Basketball Polls

The Times’ top 20 high school basketball polls, with teams from the City and Southern Sections.

BOYS

School Sect. Div. Rec. LW 1. Mater Dei SS I-A 28-0 1 2. Crenshaw City 4-A 21-2 2 3. Dominguez SS II-A 24-2 4 4. Fontana SS I-AA 25-1 5 5. Westchester City 4-A 22-4 3 6. Inglewood SS II-AA 24-3 6 7. JW North SS II-AA 25-0 7 8. St. John Bosco SS II-A 24-2 8 9. Santa Barbara SS II-AA 26-2 9 10. LB Poly SS I-AA 22-6 10 11. Manual Arts City 4-A 20-4 12 12. Los Alamitos SS I-AA 22-4 13 13. Fairfax City 4-A 20-5 16 14. Loyola SS I-A 21-5 14 15. Verbum Dei SS IV-A 20-2 15 16. S. Ana Valley SS I-AA 25-3 18 17. Glendora SS II-AA 25-2 17 18. Palmdale SS I-A 23-3 NR 19. Warren SS I-A 22-6 NR 20. Fremont City 4-A 19-5 NR

GIRLS

School Sect. Div. Rec. LW 1. Brea-Olinda SS III-AA 26-0 1 2. Lynwood SS I-AA 26-1 2 3. Alemany SS II-A 24-0 3 4. Buena SS I-A 21-2 4 5. Woodbridge SS II-AA 26-0 5 6. Peninsula SS I-AA 22-3 6 7. Gahr SS II-AA 11-15* 7 8. St. Bernard SS IV-AA 22-5 8 9. Mater Dei SS I-A 22-3 9 10. Bishop Amat SS II-A 23-1 11 11. Cypress SS II-A 24-3 12 12. LB Poly SS I-A 21-4 14 13. San Bernardino SS II-A 22-4 17 14. B. Montgomery SS III-AA 21-7 16 15. Valley Chr. SS IV-A 23-2 15 16. Newbury Park SS III-AA 22-4 20 17. Fontana SS I-AA 21-4 19 18. Corona SS I-A 22-3 NR 19. Ventura SS II-A 19-5 NR 20. Millikan SS I-AA 17-8 NR

* Indicates 10 losses by forfeit.