HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL

Ezeuka Collins, starting center at Taft who missed 10 games while taking care of family business in Nigeria, returned to school Tuesday.

He is expected to resume playing next week in time for the Toreadors’ West Valley League showdown with Chatsworth on Wednesday.

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Crespi’s 13-3 record is its best since the 1981-82 season. The Celts’ Mission League game with host Notre Dame (15-2) on Friday rekindles the Crespi-Notre Dame basketball rivalry that was so big during the 1980s.

“It’s a huge, huge game,” Coach Rob DiMuro of Notre Dame said.

DiMuro remembers when spectators were hanging out the windows of Notre Dame’s gym for Crespi games in the ‘80s.

“This game is going to be a packed house,” DiMuro said.

Perhaps the greatest Crespi-Notre Dame game was in 1980, when the Knights pulled out a triple-overtime thriller.

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A controversy over the hair style of guard Michael Luderer has been settled, DiMuro said.

Luderer showed up at the Knights’ game Saturday with his hair in braids, causing Principal Stephanie Connelly to consider removing him from the game. He has since gotten a fade cut.

“He looks like a well-groomed Iowa farm boy,” DiMuro said.

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DeWayne Anderson, Grant’s all-league guard who left the team more than three weeks ago, finally spoke Tuesday with Coach Howard Levine and indicated he will not return.

“He lost his love for basketball,” Levine said.