Ventura Playoff Foe Up in Air

Maybe the Ventura College women’s basketball team will play Compton in a Southern California Regional game Saturday night . . . and maybe it won’t.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge will decide Friday whether Compton can continue in the playoffs after being sanctioned by the South Coast Conference for alleged recruiting violations.

Joanne Fortunato, California community college commissioner of athletics, said Compton issued self-imposed sanctions several months ago for a “variety of things,” including allegations that assistant coach Louie Nelson recruited players illegally.

Fortunato, who would not identify the infractions, said the conference believed Compton had not enforced the sanctions and ordered the school excluded from the regional.

The school and Nelson appealed to the Southern Appeals Board of the state’s commission on athletics.

Urrea Jones, an attorney for the Compton Community College District, said the school obtained a restraining order from the court because the board’s decision was not scheduled to be rendered until after the start of the regional on Feb. 28.

The decision by the appeals board is due by Friday.

The game between host Ventura (32-1) and Compton (24-7) has been moved from Friday to Saturday at 7 p.m. The time could be switched to 5:30 p.m. if the Ventura men’s team is also playing a regional game at home that night.