Monarchs Whip Vista in Carson Cage Meet

Like a broken record, the basketball game plays over and over in Carl Franklin’s mind.

Last March, the Morningside coach watched his team take a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter of the Southern California Regional Division III finals. But from then on, the Monarchs went cold and ended up losing to Trabuco Hills, 60-57.

The Monarchs out-rebounded Trabuco Hills, 49-37, and had four more field goals than the Mustangs. Morningside took 74 shots to Trabuco Hills’ 47. The Mustangs won the game at the free-throw line by converting 21 of 31 attempts.

“Yes, we look at that game quite a bit,” Franklin said, “and from a coach’s standpoint I think we did enough to win and the statistics are probably in our favor. I think we’ll grow from that loss and we’re going to use that for motivational purposes.”

Wednesday afternoon in the Carson summer tournament, the Monarchs got back on the winning track with an 80-58 victory over Vista and move on to face Hawthorne today at 11 a.m. in second-round action. In other games today at Carson, Palos Verdes plays Marina at 5:40 p.m.; Carson takes on Ganesha at 7, and Rolling Hills plays Muir at 8:20.

The championship game will be played Saturday night at 7:30.

Center Jeff Crowe and point guard Don Sanders, Morningside’s two returning starters, had 12 and four points respectively for the Monarchs on Wednesday, while sophomore Arthur Savage, who scored nine points and pulled down 10 rebounds in Morningside’s loss to Trabuco Hills, led all scorers with 14 against Vista.

Last year’s young, inexperienced Morningside team, which finished the season at 25-6, gives way to a squad dominated by upperclassmen with vivid memories of the game that got away.

In addition to Crowe, Sanders and Savage, returning players Dan Taylor, Martel Bland and Mike Pearson all saw action in the Division III finals, and 6-5 junior forward Tyrone Paul could have made the difference in the game, according to Franklin.

Franklin said the personality of the 1989-90 team will be rife with remembrance of the loss at the Sports Arena.

“The first time you advance that far and make it in something like that, you stand around a little in awe,” he said. “This year, we’ll be more prepared and our goal is to get back to the Sports Arena and win it this time.

“And believe me, a lot of them remember that game and they want to get back there as bad as anyone.”