Dominguez Forfeits Basketball Victory

The Compton Dominguez boys’ basketball team, ranked No. 4 in the Southland by The Times, must forfeit its victory in the Pangos Dream Classic on Saturday at UCLA because its 6-foot-8 senior swingman, LaMar Roberson, had not been granted athletic eligibility, a Southern Section official said.

Roberson, who is originally from Baton Rouge, La., sat out the first 14 games this season before making his first appearance in the Dons’ 66-52 victory over Southwest Atlanta Christian in Pauley Pavilion. Tom Simmons, section spokesman, said Roberson originally applied for a hardship waiver, but the request was denied.

“He was not athletically eligible when he played the other night,” Simmons said. “As of right now, that game is a forfeit. We’re waiting on paperwork from [Dominguez] to show that there was a bona fide change of address.”

Roberson had five points, seven rebounds and four steals, and was the primary defender on 6-11 center Dwight Howard, considered the top high school player in the country.

Coach Russell Otis, who returned to the Dominguez program last season, did not return phone calls made to the school.

With the forfeit, the Dons fall to 11-4 overall. They play No. 13 Long Beach Poly at 6 p.m. Saturday as part of the Reebok California Hoop Challenge at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

The Santa Margarita boys’ basketball team doesn’t expect leading scorer Tyler Smith to return until next week’s Serra League opener against Bellflower St. John Bosco, Coach Jerry DeBusk said

Smith, a senior guard who averaged 15 points and 6.2 rebounds last season, is battling a staph infection in his right knee, which caused him to sit out the Orange tournament, Dec. 26-29, and Saturday’s nonleague victory over Los Alamitos. The Eagles (14-2) play host to Playa del Rey St. Bernard in a nonleague game tonight.

Dan Arritt

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Girls’ Basketball

Pomona Diamond Ranch (14-3) has been one of the streakiest teams in the Southern Section. The Panthers won their first 12 games, then lost three in a row at the Chino Hills Ayala Best of the West tournament.

They have since won twice, including 73-55 over Pomona Ganesha on Monday, and begin defense of their Mount Baldy League title tonight against one of their two rivals, Chaffey; Don Lugo is the other. Diamond Ranch won three titles in the Miramonte League.

“After we lost that first game to [Rialto Eisenhower, 47-45], everything snowballed,” said Coach Vince Spirlin, whose team had beaten Simi Valley Royal (12-2), Etiwanda (9-7) and Perris (8-5). “We’re getting back on track. Once we get going, it’s pretty hard to stop us.”

Diamond Ranch is led by 6-1 Alysha White, who is averaging 18 points, and 6-2 Danisha McCall, who is averaging 15 points and 13 rebounds.

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Football

Troy Starr, who guided Woodland Hills Taft to a 1998 City Championship and had four other City finalist teams in 11 years as coach until resigning after the 2002 season, is expected to return as Toreador coach next week.

“I can neither confirm nor deny anything,” Starr said Tuesday while on vacation.

Starr spent last season coaching linebackers at Cal Lutheran and teaching at Taft. He cited burnout as the reason he didn’t coach the Toreadors last season but has a son enrolling at Taft next fall.

Kevin Pearson directed Taft to a 5-6 record in 2003 and is expected to resign, according to a source close to the football program.

Eric Sondheimer

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Boys’ Soccer

San Clemente, the top-ranked girls’ team in the Southland by The Times, is ranked No. 3 nationally by the National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America. The Tritons (8-2-3), winners of the prestigious Excalibur tournament Dec. 31 at Santa Ana Foothill, were previously unranked in the national poll.

Satellite Beach (Fla.) Satellite is top-ranked, Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas is No. 2.

Bob Rohwer

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Girls’ Soccer

Los Angeles Marlborough (4-3-1) is in the midst of a rough four-games-in-five-days stretch, but Coach David Collicutt found a way to rest part of his team Tuesday.

With Marlborough leading 10-0 after 15 minutes of a Sunshine League game against Burbank Bell-Jeff, the coaches and referees agreed to play 25-minute halves, and Collicutt removed the majority of his starters and permanently removed one player from the field to match his opponent, which was competing one player short.

“We tried not to run up the score,” Collicutt said.

Marlborough won, 12-0, led by team-leading scorer Laura Huettner, who had four goals.

The Mustangs play North Hollywood Oakwood, a playoff team last season, in a home nonleague game today at 3:15 p.m. They finish the week with two road games: league champion Pasadena La Salle on Thursday at 3:15 p.m. and archrival Los Angeles Notre Dame Academy on Saturday at 1 p.m.

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Boys’ Water Polo

The U.S. national development team defeated Canada’s national cadet “B” team, 7-4, Friday during the NorAm Championships in the USA Water Polo National Training Center at Los Alamitos. The U.S. lost to Canada’s cadet “A” team, 8-7 on Saturday and 7-6 on Sunday.

Irvine Northwood freshman Caleb Hamilton was the leading scorer for the U.S. with four goals. Anaheim Servite’s Troy Carter and La Verne Bonita’s Brett Hays, also freshmen, each had three goals.

Long Beach Wilson freshman Taylor Lapin was the goalkeeper.

-- Bob Rohwer