Westminster Girls Take Their Games Down to the Wire

Dick Katz certainly knows his team well. The Westminster girls’ basketball coach half-jokingly calls it “a 6-6 team.”

“We’ll either win by six or lose by six,” Katz said.

Westminster hasn’t lost much. The Lions are 19-4 and undefeated in the Golden West League. Their most recent victory was typical Westminster basketball.

Katz said the game would be ugly. It was. The Lions fell behind Rosary by 13 points about a minute into the third quarter. Westminster won by six points, 52-46.

“They’ll look terrible until it gets to crunch time,” Katz said before tipoff. “These girls refuse to lose. This team never thinks they can’t compete.”

He compared them to the La Quinta boys’ team he coached to the section title in 1980, and it’s an attitude that is evident among the players, though no one expects the Lions to win the Division I-A title.

“We hate to lose,” said scoring leader Janet Glasby. “That’s what it comes down to. We will not lose.”

As for the falling behind that requires such clutch performances, Glasby said, “I think we’re a better team for it. It builds total character. You can’t just win it from offense.”

Glasby is a senior. Holly Armstrong is a sophomore. And she sounds a lot like Glasby.

“If we work hard, we can beat anybody,” Armstrong said. “We’ve always been a second-half team. That’s when we work our hardest.”

Why?

“I have no clue.”

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First-year Foothill girls’ soccer Coach Edgar Smith, who missed both Knight games last week, might not return because of personal reasons, Athletic Director Jerry Whitaker said Monday.

A walk-on, Smith did not show up for a 4-1 victory over Santa Ana Valley and a 9-0 victory over Orange. Assistant Hector Romero is expected to guide the Knights (9-5-3, 5-1) today against visiting El Modena, weather permitting, in a battle for first place in the Century League. El Modena handed Foothill its only league loss this season, by a score of 3-1. Whitaker said he spoke briefly to Smith, whose previous experience was limited to club soccer, Friday and hopes to meet with him again, possibly later this week.

“My feeling is he won’t be back,” Whitaker said.

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A .500 record in league play and winning three of four league games isn’t cause for a huge celebration, but it’s still something that makes Los Amigos girls’ basketball Coach John Keating smile.

Keating took over a team that finished 0-22 last season, and the Lobos have turned it around, winning three of their last four league games to improve to 7-11, 4-4 in league heading into Monday’s game at Pacifica.

Jan. 26, Maria Elias made a three-pointer at the buzzer to conclude a 21-point fourth quarter and a 43-40 comeback victory over Santiago. Thursday, Los Amigos defeated Bolsa Grande, 30-19.

Keating is no coaching rookie. The longtime Los Amigos teacher coached the boys’ basketball team for several years in the ‘70s when former USC standout Clayton Olivier played. But Keating refuses to take any bows for the turnaround.

“The kids just needed some stability,” Keating said. “It’s been great.”

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A bureaucratic snafu forced No. 5 Marina to reschedule its girls’ basketball showdown with No. 2 Esperanza to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Esperanza (16-6, 6-0), which won the first meeting, 63-51, Jan. 22, leads the Vikings (18-4, 5-1) in the Sunset League.

The game was originally scheduled to be played Feb. 10, but according to Marina Athletic Director Larry Doyle, a district official inadvertently booked the Vikings’ gymnasium for an open enrollment meeting with about 1,000 middle school students and their parents without first checking with Marina. By the time Viking Principal Carol Osbrink discovered the conflict, it was too late to make a change, Doyle said.

Marina originally sought to reschedule to Monday. Doyle said the Marina gym is booked with another event through Saturday afternoon, so the girls frosh-soph game with the Aztecs might have to be canceled.

A halftime ceremony to honor the Marina girls’ state championship volleyball team, also scheduled for Feb. 10, has been moved to halftime of Thursday’s game against Los Alamitos.

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Villa Park Coach Kevin Reynolds believes so much in the ability of Alex Will to shoot three-pointers, that he wasn’t too worried when the county’s leading long-range shooter missed his first five attempts in Friday’s 60-56 overtime victory over Canyon. Will made three of his next four attempts--he had 11 in all--and finished with 18 points.

“As far as I’m concerned, he has the green light to shoot whenever he wants to,” Reynolds said.

Will has made 58 of 105 (55.2%) of his three-point attempts this season.

Will was fouled at the end of the third quarter against Canyon while in the act of shooting a three-pointer. Villa Park led, 41-35, however Will missed all three free-throw attempts.

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Commitments:

--Ryan Gray, a 6-3, 280-pound offensive guard at Aliso Niguel, has made an oral commitment to attend Colorado, Wolverine Coach Joe Wood said.

--Jake Ashabraner, a 300-pound offensive lineman at Esperanza, has orally committed to attend Cal State Northridge, Aztec Coach Gary Meek said.

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Neda Saadai has become the Brethren Christian boys’ volleyball coach, Athletic Director Dennis Eastman said.

Eastman said Saadai, 22, played four years at Biola University.

Michael Itagaki and Melanie Neff and staff writer Paul McLeod contributed to this story.