VENICE : Oakwood Youths Win Basketball Title : Sports: Short on resources and lacking height, underdog team uses full-court press and an emphasis on fundamentals to take citywide title.

Short on players but long on hope, a young basketball team from the Oakwood section of Venice won the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks city basketball championship Wednesday night.

The team of nine 13- to 15-year-old players from the Oakwood Recreation Center beat a squad from the Northridge Recreation Center, 59-44, in the tournament’s final, held Downtown at the Sports Arena. The game was sponsored in part by the L.A. Clippers and Arco Corp.

The competition began in January and involved more than 200 teams from recreation centers across the city. At the final, more than 100 Oakwood residents turned out to cheer a team that been an underdog throughout the tournament.

“Most teams had 13 to 14 players, but we operated with about seven to eight kids for most of the tournament,” said Scott Grace, the team’s assistant coach. “Other parks have larger programs and were able to pick the best two players from six different teams. We had only one team--the number of kids who showed up.”

There were other burdens. The players on the team are relatively short--with just two barely topping 6 feet.

Some squads used players as tall as 6 foot 3 and weighing up to 250 pounds.

In addition, the Oakwood Recreation Center, located in one of the poorest areas of the Westside, had to make do on a shoestring budget. Some players were unable to afford the $40 team membership fee; at times, uniforms and referees were scarce.

“Other teams might have had better uniforms, more size and height,” Grace said. “But we had precision, discipline, speed, teamwork, heart and a lot of pride.”

On March 25, the Oakwood squad beat West Wilshire Recreation Center, 60-48, for the district championship.

Then came a 70-52 victory March 30 over the previous year’s city champions, Rosecrans Recreation Center, for the Pacific Region Championship.

Team members credited much of their success to their coach, Peter Garrett, 35, a former star basketball player at San Francisco State, who ran rigorous practice sessions that emphasized basketball fundamentals. One of the team’s most effective tactics was an aggressive full-court press.

“When the bigger players on the other teams would first see us, they’d laugh,” said Keyon Smith, a star player on the Oakwood squad. “Then we’d beat them by 30 points, and they’d come over to us and say, ‘Hey, you guys are pretty good.’ ”