Sports

PREPS

The mission of the Dominguez High boys’ basketball team is to win the Southern Section Division II-A championship. The Dons took another step toward that goal with a 78-45 San Gabriel Valley League victory over Warren on Friday.

Dominguez High forwards Tommy Prince and James Jones, however, placed more significance on their 68-62 victory Saturday over Westchester in the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Challenge at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, a game with no bearing on the San Gabriel Valley League title.

“Everybody was looking forward to this game more than the other game,” Prince said. “We got a chance to play in (Pauley Pavilion). A gym like this helps us prepare for when we play (in an arena) in the Southern Section championship.”

Jones scored 22 and Prince had 16 points, 14 in the second half, to help Dominguez (19-1), the second-ranked team in the state by Student Sports magazine, pull away in the final two minutes.

James Brown and Kenny Brunner scored 16 and 10 points, respectively, for Dominguez, which plays host to Paramount in a San Gabriel Valley League game tonight.

“We weren’t paying attention to (the Warren game), we were looking forward to (Westchester),” Jones said. “Everybody was sore in the locker room (Saturday) and the atmosphere was pretty rough. At first we came out and we got off to a good start, but we did pretty good in the second half.”

In other Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Challenge games, Inglewood beat Peninsula, 62-51, and Rowland defeated Millikan, 74-70. Rick Anderson had 20 points, including four three-point baskets, for Millikan (12-9). Teammates Robert Anderson and Rick Sanders had 15 and 13 points, respectively.

* Dino Trigonis of the Belmont Shore Basketball Club has announced plans for a second Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Challenge to be played at the Pyramid at Long Beach State. Proceeds from the event benefited the Belmont Shore basketball club events and youth programs.

The challenge was originally scheduled to be played at the Pyramid, the new $22-millon campus arena at Long Beach State. However, the games were moved to Pauley Pavilion because contractors had not cleared the Pyramid for use by off-campus groups.

* State champions LaKeisha Backus of Long Beach Wilson and Michael Granville of Bell Gardens will be among 2,000 athletes from 300 high schools who will compete in the Sunkist Invitational indoor track and field meet Feb. 11 at the Sports Arena.

Backus is the top returning runner in the country in the 200 meters at 23.21 seconds and placed second in the event in the International Amateur Athletic Federation World Championships at Lisbon, Portugal, in July.

Backus, a senior, will run in the 50 meters at the Sunkist meet where she will renew her rivalry with Andrea Anderson and Aminah Haddad of Long Beach Poly. The UCLA-bound Anderson is the nation’s fastest returner at 100 meters at 11.58 seconds and Haddad is third at 11.63. They will run in a field that includes state 100-meter champion Heather Sumpter of Muir.

Granville, a junior, holds national freshman and sophomore records in the 800 meters and won the event at the state meet in June. He was the nation’s top runner at 800 meters at 1:48.98 seconds and set a national sophomore record at 500 yards of 57.7 seconds in last year’s Sunkist meet.

Granville will compete in the open 500 yards in the Sunkist meet against a field that includes Danny Harris, the 1984 Olympic silver medalist in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, Yeume Ekpenong of USC, McClinton Neal and Kevin Henderson.

Anderson and Haddad are part of a 17-athlete contingent from Long Beach Poly in the Sunkist meet. Other Poly competitors include Robert Daniels (50 meters), Sheldon Salvary (rated 880 yards), Aaron Tyler (500 yards), Eric Peterson (50-meter high hurdles), Marcus Anderson (long jump), Myesha Williams (girls’ 500 yards), Sherron Rhetta and Jamil Hill (girls’ 880 yards), Joy Dilday (girls’ rated mile), Josie Sepulveda (girls’ two mile), Rashida Glenn (girls’ 50-meter hurdles), Pam Simpson (girls’ long jump and 500 yards), Nacemah Witey (girls’ triple jump), Shavent Williams (girls’ high jump) and Cynthia Ademilvyi (girls’ shotput).

Poly also has boys’ and girls’ teams entered in the mile, two-mile and 1,280-yard relays.

Also scheduled to compete are LeJuan Gibbons of Long Beach Jordan and Tyrone Boulden of Pius X in the 50 meters, Juan Escalera of Lynwood in the rated mile, John Davis of Long Beach Wilson in the shotput and discus, Allison Parks of Pius X in the girls’ 50 meters, Angie Polk of Cerritos in the girls’ 50-meter hurdles, and Felcia Pulley of Long Beach Wilson in the girls’ triple jump.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

The Cerritos College men’s basketball team will play host to El Camino Saturday night to finish the first round of South Coast Conference play. The Falcons, ranked third in the state by the J.C. Athletic Bureau, defeated Long Beach City, 74-65, and Pasadena City, 91-72, last week to improve to 22-1 and remain undefeated in conference play.

Sophomore center Darius Rutledge leads the Falcons with an average of 15.7 points and 11.2 rebounds per game. Freshman forward David Henry and sophomore Wayne Allen are averaging 15.4 points and 14.3 points, respectively.

* The Cerritos College women’s basketball team improved to 5-1 in South Coast Conference play, defeating Compton, 64-60, and Mt. San Antonio, 65-53, on the road last week. Cerritos (15-8), which trails defending state champion Harbor by a game for the conference lead, plays host to Pasadena on Friday night.

Michelle Coleman, a sophomore center from Bell, is averaging 19.8 points and 11.2 rebounds in conference play. She had 18 points and 15 rebounds against Mt. San Antonio, and 13 points and 10 rebounds against Compton.

VOLLEYBALL

The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team is ranked fifth in Volleyball Magazine’s preseason poll. The 49ers opened the season Wednesday against Princeton in the Gold Mine and are scheduled to play USC on Feb. 3 in their first game in the Pyramid.

Middle blocker Neil Mendel (6-7) and outside hitters Travis Barr (6-7) and Oren Zaslansky (6-5), all juniors, along with sophomore setter Forrest Cheney, return from last year’s team that finished 13-15 overall and fifth in the Pacific Division of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation at 7-12.

The 49ers are bolstered by the addition of Steve Walker, a junior from Golden West College, and freshman middle blocker Gaby Amar.

Senior hitter Martin Wagner is expected to redshirt this year because of academic reasons. Wagner led Long Beach in kills in 1994 with 567 and was selected third-team all-conference.

NAMES IN THE NEWS

* Michael Fletcher of Paramount, The Times’ Long Beach back of the year, has committed to Oregon, choosing the Ducks over Fresno State and Colorado State.

* Thomas Paredes, offensive coordinator at Cantwell-Sacred Heart, has been chosen football coach at St. Bernard. Paredes, 37, is the younger brother of J.W. North and former Bishop Amat Coach Mark Paredes.

It is the first head coaching job for Paredes, who has served as an assistant for eight seasons. Paredes came to Cantwell in 1991 and has also worked as an assistant at Bishop Amat under brother Mark and for two seasons at Walnut with Jim Patricio, who is now the coach at El Rancho.

* Mike Sanders, defensive coordinator at Whittier College last season, has been named football coach at Bishop Montgomery High. Sanders, who was also an assistant at Damien High in La Verne for three years, is the fifth coach in seven years at the school.

* The brother and sister combination of Aaryn and Theresa Macias of Norwalk won five titles in the recent Sports Karate International championships in Burbank.

Aaryn, 8, competing in the red-belt division, won the open form (ages 8 and under), weapons (age 9 and under) and musical form (age 17 and under) for the second year in a row.

He also placed second in fighting (age 8 and under) and was fourth in traditional form (age 17 and under).

Theresa, 11, was second in fighting for girls’ age 10-11 in the blue belt division.