Westchester Will Head to Court

An attorney representing Westchester High plans to ask a judge today to intervene in the school’s dispute with the City Section.

The attorney, Lamar Baker, will seek a temporary restraining order in Los Angeles Superior Court to prevent the section from enforcing a postseason ban against the boys’ basketball team for an alleged recruiting violation.

The legal action is expected to aim to have Westchester included in City Section playoff pairings that will be decided Saturday, pending the outcome of a final appeal to the commissioner of the California Interscholastic Federation, high school athletics’ governing body.

Officials from Westchester, the state Division I champion the last two seasons, filed a 61-page brief with the CIF on Monday, claiming that the City Section was in error because its procedures “violate standards of fundamental fairness and due process.”

The brief also said factual findings were “in error” and even if the findings were true, the punishment imposed was “grossly disproportionate and arbitrary.”

CIF officials have not indicated when a ruling would be made.

Westchester was banned from postseason play for one year on Dec. 16 by the City Section rules committee after Los Angeles Verbum Dei alleged a Comet assistant coach recruited 6-foot-9 junior center Amir Johnson. A three-person panel refused to overturn the ban Jan. 26.

Eric Sondheimer

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Los Angeles Fairfax has been difficult to beat over the years, especially in its own gymnasium. That’s where the Lions, ranked No. 2 in the Southland by The Times, will face the last team to beat them on their home floor, No. 1 Westchester, tonight in a Western League finale.

Fairfax (20-3, 8-1 in league) and Westchester (22-2, 9-0) have split their league games the last two seasons, but the Comets haven’t won at Fairfax since the 2001-02 season.

Westchester won its home game this season, 63-55, on Jan. 28.

“Hopefully, we can split again this year,” Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani said.

Even with another loss, Kitani expects Fairfax to be seeded No. 1 or 2, pending the outcome of Westchester’s appeal to the CIF and any legal action regarding its ban from the postseason, when the City Section releases its pairings Saturday morning.

“I would put our schedule up against anyone’s,” Kitani said.

Other key Southland games tonight:

* No. 10 L.A. Dorsey (21-2, 9-0) is at L.A. Fremont (13-9, 7-2) in a Coliseum League finale at 4 p.m. Fremont upset L.A. Crenshaw, 79-78, last Friday.

* Cypress (19-6, 8-1) plays at Orange Lutheran (21-4, 8-1) for the Empire League title. The teams tied for the title last season with 9-1 records.

* Lancaster (16-8, 8-1) travels to Palmdale Highland (23-2, 9-0) in the Golden League. Highland won, 78-77, when the teams met Jan. 22 at Lancaster.

* Lompoc Cabrillo (18-4, 10-1) plays at Santa Maria St. Joseph (22-3, 11-0) in a Los Padres League finale. St Joseph beat Cabrillo, 65-49, on Jan. 23.

Dan Arritt

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Girls’ Basketball

The Marmonte League championship game tonight will be the last after league officials announced they will scrap the two-division format after a two-year trial period. The league will have eight teams playing each opponent twice, instead of each school in a division playing twice within its division and once against schools in the other division.

The league champion will be determined tonight at Agoura as East division winner Simi Valley Royal (22-2, 10-0) faces West winner Newbury Park (12-6, 8-2) at 7:30 p.m. Other Marmonte games today at Agoura begin at 3 p.m. with Calabasas vs. Thousand Oaks for seventh place, followed by Agoura vs. Moorpark for fifth and Simi Valley vs. Westlake for third.

Martin Henderson

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Girls’ Soccer

Brittany Klein of Arcadia was selected by Gatorade as the girls’ soccer player of the year in California on Thursday.

The senior midfielder has 27 goals and 28 assists on the season for the Pacific League champion Apaches (21-1-2, 10-0), who are ranked second in the Southland by The Times.

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South Pasadena (13-7-4, 6-1-3) clinched a fourth consecutive Rio Hondo League title when it tied Temple City, 1-1, on Thursday. Eva Dixon scored for South Pasadena and Jordan Martin scored for Temple City (17-3-4, 6-2-2).

South Pasadena will try to defend its Southern Section Division IV co-championship.

Temple City, which last won a share of the Rio Hondo League title in 2002, has advanced to at least the quarterfinals in each of the last five seasons under Coach Bill Martin, who has 282 career victories.

Elia Powers

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Wrestling

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel, ranked No. 2 in the Southland by The Times, was seeded first for the Southern Section Division I dual-meet championships at Brea Olinda on Saturday, where the Eagles will be joined by five other ranked teams.

The six divisionals begin at 10 a.m. and conclude four rounds of duals with finals at 5 p.m. Calvary Chapel is seeded ahead of second-seeded Temecula Valley (ranked fourth), Chino Hills Ayala (third), Atascadero (fifth), Laguna Hills (eighth) and Santa Ana (10th).

The Division II tournament at Riverside La Sierra features top-seeded Rosemead, ranked sixth, and second-seeded North Torrance (seventh). Top-ranked Covina Northview was seeded first in Division III at Redlands East Valley, and host Alta Loma received the No. 1 seeding for Division V, with ninth-ranked Downey seeded second.

The Division IV meet will be at Thousand Oaks, where Suburban League champion Norwalk Glenn is seeded first, and Division VI is at Covina Charter Oak, which is seeded second to Golden League champion Palmdale Highland.

-- Rafer Weigel