Crenshaw Girls, Boys Play for State Sweep

Crenshaw High will try to become the first school to win state Division I titles for boys’ and girls’ basketball in the same season tonight at the Pond of Anaheim.

The Crenshaw girls play Berkeley at 6 p.m., followed by the Crenshaw boys against Alameda St. Joseph at 8. Both games will be televised live on Sports Fox West 2.

Santa Ana Mater Dei was the only other school to advance both of its teams to Division I finals in the same season, in 1995, but only the boys won.

The tournament concludes today with finals for boys and girls in Divisions I, III and IV beginning at 10 a.m. This is the first year the state finals have been held at the Pond and only the second time since 1983 they’ve been held in Southern California.

The Crenshaw boys have won a record seven Division I titles since 1985, including a 91-81 victory over Concord De La Salle last year. They have played in four of the last five championship games.

The Crenshaw girls are playing in their first final and are only the second City Section school to advance this far since Locke won the inaugural state championship game over San Jose Lynbrook in 1981.

“I think this says a lot about how far City basketball has come,” said Crenshaw girls’ Coach Greg Cobbs, whose team beat another City Section team, Narbonne, in last week’s Southern Regional final.

In other games today, three teams will try to defend state titles: Moraga Campolindo in girls’ Division IV; Torrance Bishop Montgomery in girls’ Division III and North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake in boys’ Division III.

Today also will mark the end of several notable careers, including those of identical twins Jarron and Jason Collins of Harvard-Westlake and Baron Davis, who leads Santa Monica Crossroads in the Division IV final.

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Championships At a Glance

* What: State high school basketball championships.

* Where: Pond of Anaheim.

* When: Today.

* Tickets: Sold through Ticketmaster or at the Pond box office. Two tickets are required to see the whole session today, one for the daytime games, another for the two Division I games. Prices are $13 for plaza-level reserved seats, $9 for club-level reserved seats and $7 for terrace-level general admission seats. Participating schools have tickets for sale in the Club and Terrace levels only.

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

* Girls’ Division IV: Playa del Rey St. Bernard vs. Moraga Campolindo, 10 a.m.

* Boys’ Division IV: Santa Monica Crossroads vs. Sacramento Encina, 11:45 a.m.

* Girls’ Division III: Torrance Bishop Montgomery vs. Lafayette Acalanes, 1:15 p.m.

* Boys’ Division III: North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake vs. San Mateo Hillsdale, 3 p.m.

* Girls’ Division I: Crenshaw vs. Berkeley, 6 p.m.

* Boys’ Division I: Crenshaw vs. Alameda St. Joseph, 8 p.m.