NOTEBOOK : City Section Gets Added Berths in State Basketball Tournament

The Crenshaw High boys’ basketball team, the two-time defending State Division I champion, has won an unequaled six State titles. City Section boys’ basketball teams have won eight championships since 1981 and been in the final nine times during that span.

Yet since 1992, only the City 4-A champions have been guaranteed berths in the Southern California Regional Division I playoffs for boys and girls. The Southern Section, by comparison, receives four automatic berths each for boys and girls in the eight-team brackets.

That scenario will change beginning with this year’s State tournament, when the City will receive two berths each for boys and girls in the regionals.

The request from the City section was reviewed by the State CIF basketball advisory committee in January and approved by a four-member panel of Southern California commissioners. To make room for the added berths, the at-large berth that had come from the Southern, San Diego, Central or City sections has been eliminated. The San Diego and Central sections will remain at one automatic entry each.

“Mathematically, it didn’t make sense the way it was written before with the number of schools we had and how successful the City has been at the State level,” City Athletic Commissioner Barbara Fiege said. The Southern Section fields 91 schools in the Division I classification of 1,500 students or more. The City section has 43 Division I schools.

The decision brings the City’s representation back to the level it enjoyed before 1992, when the state cut the City’s automatic berths to one each for boys and girls. Before 1992, the City 3-A and 4-A boys’ and girls’ champions received berths in the regional playoffs.

Fiege said only 4-A teams will be considered for the two berths--the champion and either the runner-up or a semifinalist--pending a final decision to be made next month by the City basketball seeding committee.

Fiege said the current City policy is to wait until league play ends before classifying teams 4-A or 3-A, using quality of play as the criterion, regardless of a school’s enrollment or record. So, Fiege said, only the best of the City schools will be 4-A once the playoffs begin.

For Dorsey High Coach Kevin Gibson, whose Dons have advanced to the 4-A final the past three years, the change was long overdue.

“Last year, I didn’t think it was right for us not to go” to the State tournament, Gibson said. “The City has been dominant up north over all these years. I didn’t see why we got slighted for one of the positions.”

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Flying high--The Cal State L.A. men’s basketball team is off to its best start since 1971. The Golden Eagles defeated Regis (Colo.), 64-49, Wednesday to improve to 5-0.

Tyrone Haylock, a 6-foot-5 senior forward from LACC, is averaging 17 points and 7.2 rebounds and has scored in double figures in 12 of his past 14 games dating to last season.

The Cal State L.A. women are 6-3 after Wednesday, their best start since 1986. Stacie Washington, a 6-2 senior center, is averaging 15.7 points and 9.8 rebounds.

Maritza Cruz had 21 points in a 77-67 defeat Wednesday. The junior forward from Huntington Park is averaging 10 points. She has led Cal State L.A. in scoring in three games, including a career-high 22 points against Chapman on Dec. 2.