Sports

PROMISING START

St. Bernard High freshman Malika Edmonson injured her hip and was a late scratch from the 500-yard event at Saturday’s Sunkist Invitational.

But Edmonson did run the anchor for an all-freshmen St. Bernard girls’ 4x440 relay team and led it to a second-place finish in a time of 4 minutes 3.7 seconds. Morningside won the race in 3:56.9. The Vikings ran the second-fastest time of the day in the six heats.

In addition to Edmonson, ninth-graders Regine Caruther, Roshanna Payne and Myleik Teele also ran in the relay. The four freshmen are national age-group record-holders in the 12- and 14-year-old divisions.

In the 640-yard relay, the Vikings, led by Edmonson, finished in 1:16.1 and were second to Etiwanda (1:15.8) in their heat. It was the third-fastest time overall.

HISTORY LESSON

Twenty-five years ago, Beverly Hills won its first and only Southern Section basketball championship by defeating Santa Maria, 74-62. The starting lineup consisted of present coach Jason Newman, shooting guard Jim Tough, forwards Ed Burris and Ed Carmen, and center Rick Caesar, the son of comedian Sid Caesar.

Among their biggest games was a five-overtime victory against Aviation. The Normans (26-5) did lose to Ventura in the finals of the Beverly Hills tournament. Ventura was led by Keith Wilkes, who later changed his first name to Jamaal and played for UCLA and the Lakers.

The Normans hoped to repeat history this season with one of the area’s top centers in Luke Buffum.

But the Normans failed to get past the first round of Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs, losing to Gahr, 48-37.

The Normans shot only 38% from the field to account for their season-low point total.

“You have to give Gahr credit, they defended us very well,” Newman said. “For whatever reason, we came out tentative. I don’t know what the story was.”

The Normans’ biggest loss will come in June when the 6-foot-7 Buffum graduates. Rarely do the Normans get a mobile big man such as Buffum, who was The Times’ 1993 Westside Player of the Year. He averaged 22 points and 8.5 rebounds, shooting 60% from the field and 80% from the free-throw line. He also made 16 of 28 three-point attempts.

“Generally speaking, we don’t get real tall kids,” Newman said. “As valuable as his contributions were on the court, he made an even bigger contribution as a real leader off the court and in the locker room. He was really a popular player on the team and he never let (publicity) get to his head.”

NOT A BAD SEED

Although Fairfax was 1-1 against Coastal Conference rival Westchester, Lion Coach Harvey Kitani doesn’t think his team deserved to be seeded ahead of the Comets.

Westchester, which has won the City 4-A Division title two of the past three seasons, was seeded second behind defending champion Crenshaw. Fairfax was not among the four seeded 4-A teams.

“(Westchester) had a really good preseason and played as well as anyone in league,” Kitani said. “They also beat the teams that were seeded below them.”

The Lions beat Westchester, 77-72, in the Coastal Conference finale on Thursday at Fairfax. It was a big morale boost for the Lions (20-5), who have lost close games to Westchester and St. John Bosco.

“The five games we lost we had a chance to win, but we fell short in different phases of the game,” Kitani said. “We needed to knock off a team with a high ranking to give our guys confidence going into the playoffs.”

The Lions played host to Grant on Wednesday. A victory would place Fairfax in a Friday game against the winner of the Palisades-Fremont game.

PLAYOFF PRIMED

The St. Bernard boys’ basketball team figures its season does not start until playoff time.

After another disappointing finish in the Mission League, the Vikings have rebounded to win their first two playoff games, defeating Murphy, 72-58, and Fillmore, 75-45. Last season the Vikings finished in fourth place but advanced to the Southern Section Division IV-AA final, losing to Corona del Mar, 47-46.

Why do the Vikings struggle in league play, then play like champions in the playoffs?

“There are two components to that question,” St. Bernard Coach Jim McClune said. “First, our league is pretty strong. Second, our playoff bracket is not. Put those two things together and we’re a pretty good team.”

The Vikings (14-11) play St. Paul (15-11) in the semifinals Friday at El Rancho High. The Swordsmen beat St. Bernard, 70-61, in a nonleague game Dec. 21.

Four players--Nnaemeka Okoye, Darren Harris, Sanford Howie and Tim Blackwell--missed the game because of the flu.

“We suited up seven kids and still gave them a pretty good run,” McClune said.

Okoye, cousin of former Kansas City Chief running back Christian Okoye, has averaged 11 points a game during the past 10 games.

“This whole playoff system can resurrect your season,” McClune said. “Normally, when you finished fourth in league, it’s not a positive occurrence. But we played in the championship game and we are on the verge of doing that again.”

STOPPING TOP GUN

Pacific Hills, which defeated Riverside Bethel Christian, 75-57, on Tuesday, will play Santa Maria Valley Christian on Friday in the Division V-A semifinals at Santa Maria.

Santa Maria Valley Christian is led by junior Chad Bickley, who made headlines earlier this month by scoring 89 points against Cuyama Valley in Coast Valley League game.

“We were there scouting the game,” Pacific Hills Coach John Bobich said. “Half of his shots were NBA threes.”

Bobich has been busy preparing his team’s defense.

“We would play man-to-man defense and switch on every pick to keep him from getting the open shot. There is no way he should even get 30 points against us.”

Santa Maria Valley Christian beat Liberty Christian, 89-73, on Tuesday. Bickley scored 25 points in the victory.

HONORS

The Crossroads girls’ basketball team had five players selected to the Delphic League first team. Junior guard Sherrise Smith who averaged 20.8 points in league, was chosen most valuable player. Also selected were junior forward Erin Irving, junior forward Yasmeen Yamini-Benjamin, junior center Halima Cotwright and senior guard Tamiko Hairston.

Sophomore guard Jenny Ho of Brentwood was the only other area player selected to the first team.

Selected to the second team were Crossroads senior forwards Allison Shapiro and Linda Ripoll.

LOPSIDED WIN

Despite winning the game by 90 points, St. Bernard Coach Lori Pawinski insists she didn’t try to run up the score against Whitney on Saturday in the first round of the IV-AA playoffs.

Marte Alexander, who had 22 points, led eight Vikings who scored in double-figures in the 106-16 win over Whitney.

The Vikings played at Beaumont on Wednesday. A victory would send them against the winner of the Notre Dame Academy-Morro Bay game Saturday at a neutral site.