Title Foe Warns Morningside : Prep basketball: Berkeley High coach says the Lady Monarchs will be in for a tough fight in Saturday’s state championship game.

Berkeley High School girls basketball Coach Gene Nakamura doesn’t think it would be prudent for Morningside to print up those “Back-to-Back State Champions” T-shirts just yet.

Nakamura’s comparatively unsung Yellowjackets (31-1) play the well-publicized Lady Monarchs (31-3) on Saturday at 4:45 p.m. in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena for the state Division I championship.

“We’re not awed by them at all,” Nakamura said earlier this week. “We’re confident, OK? They are going to have to come and play a game against us because we’re ready to play. And when we’re on our game, we play like guys, not girls.”

Most opponents have double- and triple-teamed 6-foot-5 Morningside center Lisa Leslie, who has nonetheless scored 27 points per game. But Nakamura said his team will often play the senior All-American with straight man-to-man defense Saturday.

Nakamura said that approach is justified because he has the better post player in 6-0 senior Jualeah Woods, who is averaging 18 points per game. The Lady Monarchs beat the Yellowjackets early last season, but Berkeley led for much of the game and eschewed gimmick defenses against Leslie.

“Last year, Woods played (Leslie) head up and outplayed her,” Nakamura said. “We know what we can do, and we know what they can do.

“We’ve been anxious to play them again, and the approach will be the same.”

For his part, Morningside Coach Frank Scott said he is eager for his team to face a non-doubling defense. But he said he doubts that it will last.

“I hope they do it that way,” Scott said. “She’s kind of tough to play one-on-one. If Lisa is effective, I think they’ll have to go to the double team. Woods is a good player, but I don’t think she can handle Lisa one-on-one.”

The game will be played just a few minutes down the freeway from the Berkeley campus, but Nakamura isn’t counting on a big home-court advantage.

“This season, we have not received a lot of (fan) support,” said Nakamura, whose team trails only Morningside in the Cal-Hi Sports Weekly Division I ratings and won the Northern California Regional championship in Oakland last Saturday. “But the fact that we are playing Morningside is going to draw a lot of people because they want to see Lisa Leslie.

“Hopefully, when they come to see Lisa Leslie, they’re going to see a hell of a Berkeley team.”

Scott, who took the Monarchs to a tournament in Tennessee earlier this season, said playing in the Bay Area “will help (Berkeley) a little, but it won’t hurt us much. We’re used to playing on the road and have played in some pretty foreign places.”

The Yellowjackets have outscored their opponents by an average of 36 points per game and feature up to six future NCAA Division I players, Nakamura said.

Starting along with Woods will be junior forward Alexandra Kay, who is averaging 16 points per game. Junior Tanda Rucker (18 points per game) is the point guard, while sophomore Lynda Robinson (13 points) and senior Vikki Horne (eight points) are also in Berkeley’s three-guard lineup.

Sophomore Janet Davis (10 points per game) and junior Akiba Flanagan (five points) start at forward for the Lady Monarchs. Morningside juniors Princess Murray (six points) and Bridgete Williams (nine points) are the usual starting guards, but junior Tyesha Whiting will start in place of Williams, who injured ligaments in her leg last week. (Although it was originally thought that Williams was out for the season, she has a chance to play Saturday, Scott said.)

Scott saw Berkeley play at this season’s Tournament of Champions in Santa Barbara. The Yellowjackets suffered their only loss of the year there to Los Angeles Washington, the team Morningside beat, 61-45, for the right to represent Southern California in Oakland.

“They have a fine team,” Scott acknowledged. “They have some good athletes.

“(Woods) is a legitimate 6-footer and very quick. And they have a good guard in Tanda Rucker.”

Scott may be underestimating the Yellowjackets if he thinks they have just one good guard, according to Nakamura, who said: “I figure I’ve got three of the best guards in the state--two of the best defensive guards and probably the best point in the state.”

And with Williams not starting for Morningside, Nakamura added, his team has “a back-court advantage” which it will try to exploit at both ends of the court.

“We push the ball up and play pressure defense,” he said. “They will have to make some adjustments to play against our speed, our press and our organization.

“We make very few fundamental-skill turnovers. We just don’t make mistakes, and we do not beat ourselves.”

Williams hasn’t played in the last two Morningside games, and Scott admitted that the Lady Monarchs have been susceptible to turnover problems recently. But he said he has confidence in his guards.

“We’ve handled (Williams’ absence) pretty well so far,” he said. “I think we’ll be OK there.”

Whatever happens on the perimeter, the focus of the game for most observers will remain in the lane--because that’s where Lisa Leslie is. But Nakamura maintains that they’re going to find themselves watching a lot of Jualeah Woods, too.

“(Leslie) gets a lot of P.R. and so does Janet (Davis),” he said. “Woods is probably not getting her due. If you ask any of the college coaches on the coast, they’ll tell you that she’s an All-American.

“Matter of fact, this summer at an all-star camp in Long Beach, Woods got MVP over Lisa. The same schools that are after Lisa are after Jualeah.”