Riverside King’s Lea Commits to USC Basketball

Markisha Lea, a 6-foot forward from Riverside King, became the second area player in the last week to commit to the USC women’s basketball team.

Lea, who averaged 21 points and 12 rebounds last season, will be joined by Harbor City Narbonne guard Jamie Funn at USC. Lea’s brother, Marvin, is a freshman guard at Pepperdine.

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Ekene Ibekwe, a 6-foot-9 All-City forward from Carson who averaged 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds last season, announced Monday he has committed to defending NCAA champion Maryland.

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The North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake boys’ water polo team hopes a change of scenery will give it an edge against Long Beach Wilson this week.

The Wolverines play host to Wilson in a nonleague game at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Bruins (14-0) are No. 1 in The Times’ rankings and Harvard-Westlake (13-1) is No. 2.

Wilson defeated Harvard-Westlake, 10-7, late Saturday night in the championship game of the S&R; Sport Cup at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach. The Bruins also defeated Harvard-Westlake, 9-7, in the Southern Section Division I championship game last season, also at Belmont Plaza.

In a nonleague game last season at Harvard-Westlake, the Wolverines defeated Wilson, 9-7, marking the their first victory over the Bruins since 1991.

--Dan Arritt

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If Coach Bill Tokar had his druthers, his Ventura girls’ cross-country team would be overlooked and relatively unknown at this point in the season.

But there is little chance of that happening after the Cougars won the large-schools race of the Clovis Invitational at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday.

Although Ventura did not run in the championship race against some of the state’s top-ranked Division I teams in Fresno, the Cougars’ performance in the large-schools race would have placed them second behind Canyon Country Canyon in the premier event.

“Our team time was pretty good,” Tokar said. “We had a nice [15-second] gap between our [No. 1 and 4] runners, but we’re still developing our No. 5.”

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Troy Werner of Canyon Country Canyon beat highly regarded teammate Ryan Morgan for the first time in his career Saturday when he placed fourth in the boys’ championship race in the Clovis Invitational, but he was more excited about finishing ahead of runners such as Mike Chavez of Anaheim Esperanza.

Chavez, who placed seventh Saturday, was seventh in the Southern Section Division I final last year and ran 9 minutes 9.52 seconds in the 3,200 meters during track season.

Werner has never broken 9:50 in the 3,200.

“He doesn’t want to beat Ryan,” Canyon co-Coach Dave DeLong said about Werner. “He knows we’re a better team if Ryan finishes ahead of him.”

--John Ortega

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An appeal by High Desert League member Acton Vasquez to be allowed to compete in football and baseball in the Christian League was recently denied by Southern Section officials.

Vasquez had applied to join the Christian League in all sports earlier this year, but was not admitted because the school is located more than 70 miles from the closest league member. Vasquez accepted the league’s offer to join for baseball and football.

However, section rules limit schools to one primary league, though they may participate in a different league if a sport is not available in their primary league. Vasquez has been relegated to freelance status for football this season.

--Eric Maddy

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