Wilson’s Mixon Is Off the Team

Neka Mixon, one of the top senior guards in the nation, is no longer part of the girls’ basketball team at Long Beach Wilson, which is ranked No. 9 in the Southland by The Times.

Coach Paula Clear did not provide details about Mixon’s departure but confirmed Mixon was off the team.

Mixon, a 6-foot guard and a member of The Times’ All-Star team last season, was the Southland’s seventh-leading scorer, averaging 23 points and 9.8 rebounds. She has signed with Louisville.

Mixon played against top-ranked Long Beach Poly last Friday but didn’t compete in games this week, including Wilson’s 44-42 loss to Long Beach Millikan on Thursday that created a tie for second place in the Moore League between the teams. Wilson won a coin flip to enter the playoffs as the No. 2 Moore League team.

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When the Southern Section girls’ basketball playoffs begin next week, Oxnard Santa Clara will be without two of its players and Ojai Nordhoff will be without one because of ejections during a Frontier League game Thursday at Nordhoff.

A scuffle broke out between girls from each team late in the first quarter. According to Dick Sebek, athletic director at Nordhoff, referees assessed double technical fouls and ejected both players. The other Santa Clara player left the bench, which is against CIF rules, and was ejected.

When they returned after a 30-minute cooling-off period, league co-champion Nordhoff (20-6, 7-1) pulled out a 68-54 victory over the third-place Saints (11-14, 4-4) without incident.

By rule, the ejected players must sit out their next game, which will be playoff openers.

-- Martin Henderson

Boys’ Basketball

Placentia Valencia Coach Dean Yoshimura can appreciate how difficult it is to win a league championship.

Yoshimura guided the Tigers to a 61-55 victory Friday night over host Orange Lutheran, giving Valencia the outright Empire League title, the school’s first since Yoshimura was a rookie coach in the 1993-94 season.

“I thought, ‘This was easy, I’m going to get four or five of these,’ ” Yoshimura said of his thoughts after winning his first title.

The Tigers (21-5, 9-1) beat an Orange Lutheran team that was without two injured starters and had its leading scorer, Travis Pinick, limited by early foul trouble. Still, Orange Lutheran (19-7, 8-2) used an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to cut Valencia’s lead to 50-49 with 1:58 to play.

Ray Magee then scored six of his team-high 24 points down the stretch to help the Tigers pull out the victory. Magee made 10 of 13 shots in the game.

Jeff Ledbetter led Orange Lutheran with 13 points. Pinick had 10 points in 15 minutes of play.

-- Dan Arritt

Wrestling

Teams throughout Southern California hit the mats today for the Southern Section dual-meet championships in each of six divisions.

Southwestern League champion Temecula Valley is seeded first in the Division I tournament at Anaheim Esperanza, where South Coast League champion San Clemente is seeded second. The other seeded Division I teams are Sunset League champion Huntington Beach Edison at No. 3 and Sea View League champion Laguna Hills at No. 4.

First-round matches begin at 11 a.m. at each site, with the championship matches scheduled for 7:15 p.m.