Westchester Appeal Pending

The City Section boys’ basketball playoffs will start tonight without four-time defending champion Westchester unless the California Interscholastic Federation delivers an 11th-hour reprieve by overturning City Section sanctions against the Comets.

As of Thursday, CIF Executive Director Marie Ishida had not announced a ruling on Westchester’s appeal, which was received by the CIF state office Feb. 9.

Westchester Coach Ed Azzam said he told his players to be at school today ready to play in case the CIF rules in their favor. “Obviously, at this point it doesn’t look promising,” Azzam said. “But we’ll continue to hope until we’re told otherwise.”

The Comets, two-time defending state Division I champions, were banned from postseason play for one year for allegedly recruiting 6-foot-9 junior center Amir Johnson from Los Angeles Verbum Dei last summer.

Westchester, ranked No. 1 in the Southland by The Times, forfeited the four games in which Johnson played, dropping its record to 19-6.

Rob Fernas

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Los Angeles Verbum Dei will retire the No. 23 jersey worn by the late legendary guard Raymond Lewis during halftime of its playoff game tonight against Van Nuys Montclair Prep, which begins at 7:30.

Lewis, who died in 2001 at age 48, was the 1971 Southern Section 4-A player of the year when he led the Eagles to the first of four titles in that division. As a junior, Lewis was the 1970 3-A player of the year as Verbum Dei won that title, and he played on the 1969 team that won the 2-A title.

Lewis played two seasons at Cal State Los Angeles. He averaged 38.9 points for the freshman team, and 32.9 as a sophomore -- second in NCAA Division I to Pepperdine’s William (Bird) Averitt (33.9).

Dan Loumena

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Wrestling

Bell won the City Section dual-meet championship Thursday with a 38-29 victory over host Woodland Hills El Camino Real as Marvin Lopez won by major decision at 189 pounds and the Eagles received pins from Isaac Miranda (112), Bryan Maldonado (130) and Arturo Quintero (145).

The Conquistadores were led by John Garth (215) and Max Cavaleri (heavyweight), who each had pins, and Andrew Tobin (135), who earned a major decision.

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel had five wrestlers -- Justin Paulsen at 103 pounds, Brian Osuna (119), Patrick Aleksanyan (135), David Jauregui (140) and Chad Hemerson (145) -- seeded No. 1 for the Southern Section Inland Division individual championships at Chino Hills Ayala.

Wrestling begins at 2:30 p.m. today and resumes at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Ayala was next with three top-seeded wrestlers: Travis Patterson (112), Arman Kucukkoseoglu (189) and Nick Ketelskeger (heavyweight). Fontana Miller had Andrew Salgado (125) and Bobby Green (160) seeded first.

Redlands East Valley’s Mike O’Hara (152), Fullerton Troy’s Daniel Winter (171) and Fullerton’s Jose Hernandez (215) are the other top-seeded wrestlers.

Rafer Weigel

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Girls’ Soccer

Three-time defending City Section champion Woodland Hills El Camino Real (18-4-1) starts its title defense at 3 p.m. today, playing host to Eagle Rock in a first-round match.

Last season’s City player of the year, senior midfielder Kandice McLaughlin, leads the Conquistadores in goals (23) and is second in assists (nine). Coach Shanna Sarris said McLaughlin has been better than she expected this season.

The team breezed through West Valley League play with the exception of a 1-0 loss to Granada Hills on Feb. 9. The team spent time earlier in the week dissecting film of the loss.

“Players pointed at the times when they did something wrong,” Sarris said. “They said, ‘We don’t want that type of game again.’ ”

-- Elia Powers