Berumen Elbows Way Back Into Lineup

Rafael Berumen of Simi Valley High, who missed the final two games of the regular season with a sore right elbow, will be back in the lineup when the Pioneers open the Southern Section Division I-AA playoffs against visiting Santa Maria tonight.

Simi Valley (22-5), the No. 4-seeded team in the division behind Artesia (25-1), defending champion Long Beach Poly (21-6) and Etiwanda (20-6), lost two of its final three Marmonte League games, but Coach Dean Bradshaw is upbeat about the Pioneers’ chances with the return of the 6-foot-9 Berumen and his 21-point and 10.5-rebound averages.

“We’re disappointed that we lost a couple of close ball games,” Bradshaw said. “But you can’t dwell on your losses. . . . We feel we’re one of four or five teams in [our] division that really have a chance to win the title.”

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The Division II-A game tonight with Agoura (13-11) visiting Dos Pueblos (22-4) appears to be a mismatch based on records.

But it could be a very competitive game because Channel League champion Dos Pueblos lost its final two regular-season games to Santa Barbara, 59-53, and Oxnard, 60-57, after winning 16 in a row.

Agoura lost to Westlake, 61-46, in its Marmonte League finale, but upset Simi Valley, 70-69, before that.

An Agoura victory against Dos Pueblos and a Newbury Park victory over Atascadero would set up a second-round game between the Marmonte League rivals on Tuesday.

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Before the season, Chaminade players sat down and talked about goals.

The Eagles talked about winning tournaments, winning their first Mission League title, winning a Southern Section title . . . and perhaps more.

But, talk is cheap, especially for a program that hadn’t won a league title in 11 years. Every team indulges in lofty goals and most of them fall short of high expectations.

Except for Chaminade. So far, the Eagles have overachieved.

“We expected to have a good season, but we really didn’t expect to be where we’re at right now,” Coach Jeff Young said.

Chaminade (23-1) has won 20 consecutive games since losing to Simi Valley, 62-47, in the final of the Simi Valley tournament.

The Eagles recovered to win the Chaminade tournament and a tournament in Hawaii. Chaminade clinched the league title last week with a game to play and each member of the team helped cut down a net to commemorate the feat.

“Cutting the net down was a real nice realization of what we’ve achieved,” Young said.

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Harvard-Westlake’s Russell Lakey, leading scorer in the Mission League at 22.4 points a game, scored 67 points in two victories last week to help the Wolverines secure their 16th playoff appearance in Coach Greg Hilliard’s 24-year career.

Harvard-Westlake (19-7), defending Division III state champion, travels to Cabrillo (12-11) for first-round game tonight.

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Familiar foes will take the court in a Division IV-A quarterfinal tonight at St. Genevieve High.

L.A. Baptist, coming off an upset over Brentwood on Wednesday night, will face Bell-Jeff in a rematch of a 1997 quarterfinal.

L.A. Baptist upset Bell-Jeff in that game, 73-70.

“Hopefully we can do better the second time around,” Bell-Jeff Coach Eli Essa said.

Nobody knows exactly why Division IV-A, which had only 16 teams to start, is already in the quarterfinal round.

“Monday was a holiday, so we only had one day to prepare for our first-round game,” Essa said. “Then we only had one day to prepare for this one.”

Winners of games tonight in the division will have to wait a week before playing the semifinals.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Essa said.

All other divisions, except Division V-A, play the first round tonight, the second round on Tuesday and the quarterfinals next Friday.

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Despite not winning the Foothill League title, Valencia’s season has to be considered a success.

In its third season at the varsity level, Valencia is 20-6 and finished one game behind Hart. The Vikings face at-large team Don Lugo tonight in Division I-A.

“We don’t consider it a failure at all,” Coach Gary Spindt said. “There aren’t too many third-year programs that . . . won 20 games.”

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Westlake guard Joey Cuppari set school records of 21.0 points a game and 20.2 in league play for the Warriors (13-11).

Cuppari averaged 27 points a game in Westlake’s season-ending four-game winning streak.

Staff writers John Ortega, Paige A. Leech and Peter Yoon contributed to this notes column.