SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : Postgame Incident a Misunderstanding : Division I girls: Mater Dei’s Peterson says she tried to shake hands with Crenshaw players but was berated.

The angry postscript to the girls’ basketball game between Mater Dei and Los Angeles Crenshaw Thursday appears to have been fueled by a misunderstanding, parties from both teams said Friday.

“We walked over to them. I was first in line,” said Melody Peterson, Mater Dei standout, after the Monarchs beat Crenshaw, 72-57, in a Southern California Regional Division I semifinal game at Cal State Fullerton.

“(Crenshaw’s) Chris Lattin and I hugged,” Peterson said. “Another girl would not shake (hands), then a third told me, ‘Don’t touch me.’ Then I saw another girl with her mother, and they called me names and ‘a sellout.’ I told our team, ‘They don’t want to shake our hand and we don’t want to fight.” ’

Someone told Crenshaw co-head Coach Greg Cobb that Peterson had told her teammates, “Don’t shake hands, they (Crenshaw players) want to fight.”

Cobb, whose team had just lost its first game of the season, was livid and berated Peterson after the game, saying, “I have no respect for her anymore.”

Peterson, needing treatment for a sore back, could not be reached after the game, but on Friday she gave her version of what transpired. She said she did not accuse Crenshaw players of getting ready to cause trouble.

“It’s conceivable that’s what happened,” Cobb said Friday after being told of Peterson’s statements. “I’ve known Melody through other basketball activities and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed very out of character. I want to talk to her; I may owe her an apology.

“I want it understood that our kids were not mad at Mater Dei, they were upset at losing for the first time.”