Sports

BASKETBALL AWARDS

Point guards Duane Davis of Fairfax and Sherisse Smith of Crossroads were responsible for directing their teams to championship games and were honored for their efforts Sunday during The Times’ Westside all-star awards brunch.

Davis and Smith were announced as the boys’ and girls’ Westside players of the year. They were honored along with 18 other Westside players and 20 South Bay players at the Guest Quarters Hotel in Santa Monica. Inglewood swingman Paul Pierce received The Times’ George Yardley Award as the best basketball player in Southern California.

The 5-foot-10 Davis averaged 19.5 points and helped Fairfax advance to the City Section 4-A Division championship game. Davis signed with Arizona State.

Davis follows a long line of successful point guards from Fairfax who are playing collegiate basketball, including John Woolery (Santa Clara), Burt Harris Jr. (USC) and Robert Foster (formerly of Indiana).

“I think the biggest accomplishment was making it to the finals when no one else respected us,” Davis said. “Every time we walked into a gym, we were treated like we were a one-man team. But my teammates showed up and proved them wrong.”

The 5-foot-4 Smith averaged 19.5 points and led the Roadrunners to the Southern Section Division IV-A finals. Smith signed with Cal.

Fairfax’s Harvey Kitani was honored as the Westside boys’ coach of the year and Crossroads’ Larry Wiener was named the girls’ coach of the year.

FOOTBALL SIGNINGS

Westchester High defensive back Louis Henderson signed a football scholarship last week with Cal, Comets Coach Larry Wein said.

Henderson, who also played receiver in high school, was recruited by Hawaii and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. But Henderson held out, hoping for an offer from a Pacific 10 Conference school.

The 6-2, 190-pound Henderson made a visit to Cal last weekend and was offered a scholarship. Henderson became the fifth Comet to receive a scholarship this season and the third to sign with a Pac-10 school.

Henderson caught 17 passes for 344 yards and three touchdowns. He was named to the Coastal Conference first team. As a defensive back, he had 25 solo tackles and 30 assists to finish fourth on the team. He also had interceptions and scored three touchdowns on defense.

Other Comets who have received scholarships include defensive lineman Travor Turner (UCLA), tight end Tony Griffin (USC), running back Kaaron Conwright (Cal Poly SLO) and receiver Courtney Brown (San Jose State).

BASKETBALL SIGNINGS

Beverly Hills forward Frank Brown and Venice guard Yuriko Jung were the most recent area players to commit to Division I basketball programs.

Despite interest from USC, Brown said he will play basketball at Pennsylvania of the Ivy League.

The 6-5 forward averaged 23 points and eight rebounds a game. He was selected to the Southern Section Division IV first team and to The Times’ 1995 Westside team.

Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships.

Jung chose to stay on the West Coast and plans to sign with UC Irvine. The 5-foot-8 senior guard averaged 17 points a game for the Gondoliers. She was named to the City Section 4-A Division team and The Times’ Westside team for the third consecutive year. Jung was also recruited by New York University, which competes in NCAA Division III.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

UCLA All-American Jeff Nygaard was selected the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation player of the year for the second consecutive season.

Nygaard, a senior quick hitter, led the league in blocking (2.02 a game) and finished second in hitting percentage (.470). Last season, Nygaard was selected the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. player of the year.

UCLA sophomore opposite hitter Paul Nihipali was also selected to the MPSF first team and teammate Stein Metzger, a junior setter, was named to the second team. Senior swing hitter Erik Sullivan made the third team.

Nygaard and the top-ranked Bruins will play host to fifth-ranked Brigham Young and No. 3 Hawaii meets No. 4 UC Santa Barbara in the 1995 Power Bar/MPSF tournament Friday and Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

The winner of this weekend’s tournament receives an automatic berth to the 1995 NCAA men’s volleyball championships May 5 and 6 in Springfield, Mass.

On Saturday the Bruins defeated USC, 15-13, 15-13, 15-11, for the ninth consecutive time in the first round of the MPSF playoffs. UCLA (27-1) also extended its winning streak to 15 consecutive matches and its home mark to 32 straight matches.

COLLEGE BASEBALL

The Pepperdine baseball team moved into first place in the West Coast Conference by winning three of four games last weekend at Santa Clara.

Freshman left-hander Randy Wolf pitched a three-hit shutout and had a career-high 13 strikeouts as the Waves beat Santa Clara, 1-0, in the series opener Friday.

After losing, 11-9, in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, Matt Wise pitched a school-record 10 1/3 innings to lead Pepperdine to a 5-3 win in the nightcap.

On Sunday, Ryan Christenson singled in the eighth inning to drive in the deciding run in an 8-7 win.

The Waves are 25-16-1 and 15-3-1 in the WCC, a game ahead of Santa Clara. Pepperdine is ranked 25th in the nation by Baseball America and 26th by Collegiate Baseball.

Pepperdine plays host to the University of San Diego in a three-game series that begins at 2:30 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, the teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader at noon.

CORRECTION

In the April 20th edition of The Times’ Westside section, a Crossroads High girls’ basketball player was incorrectly identified in a photograph. Forward Halima Cotwright was the player shown fighting for a loose basketball.