Prep Roundup : Titans Rolling Toward League Crown

Cliff Warren wasn’t taking any chances.

The Rolling Hills basketball coach, who wore a red tie patterned with green Christmas trees when the Titans beat Palos Verdes 63-54 on Dec. 10, donned the tie again Friday night for the Peninsula rivals’ first Bay League meeting.

“This is my PV tie,” Warren explained. “My wife was mad that I wore this because it’s a Christmas tie. But I had to do it.”

Superstitions aside, there did seem to be mysterious forces at work. How else can you explain the Titans’ 45-38 victory in double overtime before an overflow crowd of 1,300 at Rolling Hills?

Even Warren didn’t have an answer.

“Palos Verdes took us out of our game from the opening tip,” he said. “We couldn’t run. We couldn’t get the ball inside to (center) John Hardy. They did anything they wanted to do against us.”

Yet, Rolling Hills (15-4 overall, 5-0 in league) found a way to win its seventh straight game and maintain a one-game lead over West Torrance (15-4, 4-1) for first place at the halfway point of the Bay League season.

The Titans did it by making 7 of 8 free throws in the second overtime and enjoying a big night with the three-point shot. They actually made a higher number and percentage of three-pointers (8 of 16, 50%) than they did of shots from inside the 19-foot, 9-inch arc (6 of 24, 25%).

“Fortunately our three-point shooters were blazing in the first half,” Warren said.

If not, Rolling Hills would have been trailing at halftime instead of tied with Palos Verdes, at 22-22. The Titans made 6 of 10 three-point shots in the first half, which Warren equated to shooting 90% from two-point territory.

Still, it was Palos Verdes’ game to win in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. The Sea Kings went up, 38-36, with 1:11 left in regulation when center Jeff Whitley rebounded a miss for a basket and sank a free throw after he was fouled on the play.

Rolling Hills guard Mark Tesar, who led all scorers with 18 points and four three-point baskets, missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw with 43 seconds left. But the ball was tied up on the miss and awarded to Rolling Hills on the alternate-possession rule.

Given a second chance, the Titans tied the score with 19 seconds left when Hardy was fouled and hit nothing but net on two one-and-one free throws.

Palos Verdes had trouble setting up the last shot, and a 20-foot attempt by guard John Mika was off the mark as time expired.

After neither team scored in an uneventful first overtime, Rolling Hills sewed things up in the second three-minute period following a controversial play.

With Rolling Hills leading 41-38 following two free throws by Hardy, Palos Verdes’ Mika appeared to get hit as he attempted a shot from the top of the key. No call was made, and Rolling Hills got the ball back after Whitley missed with 13 seconds left.

Afterward, Mika was angry about not drawing a foul on his shot.

“I didn’t fall down by myself,” he said. “I got layed out on my butt.”

Palos Verdes Coach John Mihaljevich indicated he wasn’t pleased with some of the calls, but he didn’t make officiating an issue.

“That would sound like sour grapes,” he said. “We had enough inside scoring opportunities to win. It came down to us not making our shots.”

Palos Verdes shot a dreadful 15 of 49 from the floor.

Warren could only count his blessings--his Rolling Hills teams are now 24-1 at home over the last three seasons--and extol the virtues of one of the South Bay’s fiercest prep rivalries.

“Who wants to see SC-UCLA if you can come here?” he said. “Who wants to see Tyson and Holmes if you can come here? God, I love basketball.”

The picture is not nearly as rosy at Palos Verdes. The Sea Kings, who were the preseason favorites to win the Bay League title, fell to 11-8 overall and 2-3 in league action. They are out of serious title contention and need a win Thursday at Torrance (6-12, 3-2) to keep their playoff hopes alive.

St. Bernard, another highly regarded team before the season, might be in jeopardy of missing the CIF playoffs after suffering its third loss in four Angelus League games Friday night to St. Paul, 98-92.

The Vikings (13-6 overall) are tied for fourth place with Servite, two games behind St. Paul and Mater Dei (both 3-1 in league play) and three games behind first-place Bishop Amat (4-0).

Amat moved into sole possession of the lead after handling defending State Division I champion Mater Dei, 70-56.

St. Bernard will try to move up in the standings Wednesday night when it plays host to Bishop Montgomery (6-11, 0-4), the league’s only winless team.

South Torrance snapped a 14-game losing streak in Bay League play Friday night by outlasting North Torrance, 52-48, in overtime at South.

The Spartans (6-12, 1-4) were 0-10 in league last season when they lost a number of close games, including a six-overtime marathon with Palos Verdes.

David Hollaway, who transferred from Westchester to Crenshaw after last basketball season, came back to haunt his old team Friday.

The senior guard scored 27 points and hit a free throw with 42 seconds left to break a 96-96 tie and help unbeaten Crenshaw hold off the visiting Comets, 99-96, in a key Central League game.

Crenshaw (17-0, 5-0), ranked the No. 3 team in the nation by USA Today, was outscored 14-2 late in the game by Westchester, which was without center Zan Mason, who had fouled out. The Comets rallied behind point guard Sam Crawford, who scored 10 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter.

It was the second straight league loss for Westchester (15-3, 3-2), which is tied for second place with Washington midway through league play.

Morningside’s basketball team can move a step closer to its fifth straight league title Friday when it plays host to Leuzinger in an important Pioneer League game.

The Monarchs (13-6, 5-0) lead Leuzinger (12-5, 4-1) by one game in the standings, but the Olympians have played well and won four straight since losing to Morningside in a league opener.

Morningside, Rolling Hills and Chadwick are only South Bay teams who own unbeaten league records, not counting Small Schools Division teams.

San Pedro’s dream of a second straight L. A. City soccer title came to a disappointing end Friday night when the Pirates were beaten by Reseda, 3-1, in the finals at Westchester High.

Reseda shut out San Pedro forward Raul Haro, whose City-record 38 goals are more than Reseda’s entire team scored this season.

San Pedro ended the year with a 14-3 mark, while Reseda finished at 12-3-1.