HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK

By beating perennial City Section power North Hollywood in a Sunset League game Wednesday, the Canoga Park girls’ basketball team recorded the biggest victory yet of its best season in several years.

Canoga Park was 7-73 from 1994-95 through 1998-99, including 0-16 seasons in 1996-97 and ‘97-98. But those years of frustration are becoming faded memories for the Hunters (12-10, 5-4), who probably staked a claim to a City Invitational playoff spot with a 49-47 victory over the Huskies.

“This was very big. We are not unhappy, I’ll tell you,” said Antony Villalobos, Canoga Park’s fourth-year coach.

The Hunters were 4-12 last season and have improved behind the play of Tiffany Saunders, Elizabeth Hernandez and Shermia Jackson.

Saunders, the leading scorer and rebounder with averages of 14.8 points and 10 rebounds, was limited to seven points by North Hollywood. But Hernandez scored 17 points and Jackson had 12, and Jennifer Salehi hit a free throw in the final seconds.

“We’ve been building toward this for four years,” Villalobos said. “I think we’re peaking right now.”

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Canoga Park, in third place in the Sunset Six League, benefited Wednesday from the absence of Richelle Sherman, North Hollywood’s 6-foot junior center.

Sherman, ruled academically ineligible this week, was the Huskies’ leading scorer and rebounder with averages of 19 points and 12.7 rebounds. But she will miss the rest of the season for the second time in three years. Sherman also became ineligible at the same point in the season as a freshman.

Against Canoga Park, North Hollywood got 26 points, 10 rebounds and six steals from guard Kaipresha Price. But the Huskies missed Sherman’s inside game and jump shot.

“Everyone’s written us up as a two-man team, and now you’ve taken away half the team,” Coach Rich Allen of North Hollywood said, referring to Sherman and Price.

“The kids are crushed and we played like zombies. Richelle feels bad. She sat at that game and she was as close to tears as I’ve ever seen.”

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North Hollywood’s loss to Canoga Park, combined with a Grant victory over Poly on Wednesday, ended the Huskies’ chances of gaining a share of their 10th consecutive league title.

Grant (18-6, 9-0) will claim the Sunset Six title over second-place North Hollywood (16-8, 7-2) regardless of what happens in the regular-season finale between the teams today at Grant.

But the Lancers, ranked No. 10 in the region by The Times, will attempt to complete their first undefeated league season.

They also can extend an 11-game winning streak since consecutive losses to No. 4-ranked Newbury Park and Littlerock in the Simi Valley tournament in December.

Grant has outscored opponents by an average margin of 76-31 during the streak.

“We still have to win and keep this roll going,” Coach Steve Brumwell of Grant said.