Saugus Can Get Fat on Home Cooking

It’s a safe bet that Saugus High will post its first winning season in girls’ basketball since 1979.

The Centurions, ranked No. 5 in the region, are 13-2 and on pace to break the school record of 17 victories.

Saugus figures to battle for the championship of the Foothill League, arguably the region’s most competitive league.

“We’ve gotten so much better,” second-year Coach Eric Olsson said. “But so has Hart, Canyon, Valencia, almost everybody in our league. Every game is going to be huge.”

Especially the first five.

Because of a scheduling quirk, Saugus will play its first five league games at home, its last five on the road.

*

Simi Valley (11-3) has reached the championship game of all three girls’ tournaments it entered this season.

And lost each.

The Pioneers, who fell to North Torrance at the Valencia tournament and to Hart at the Simi Valley tournament, were routed, 64-37, by Oxnard on Friday night in the Arroyo Grande tournament.

“There’s something about championship games, I guess,” guard Teresa Cooper said.

*

Steve Brumwell of Grant turned in the motivational coaching move of last week.

After a semifinal victory over El Camino Real at the Thousand Oaks girls’ tournament, he pulled guard Alexis Weatherspoon into the lobby, where the names of former tournament champions and most valuable players are displayed on the wall.

Weatherspoon, who has accepted a track scholarship to USC after winning City titles in three events, was shown the name of her idol, Olympic champion Marion Jones, who led Thousand Oaks to the tournament title in 1992.

Weatherspoon scored 30 points the next night.

Grant lost the championship game to Royal, 52-50, but she was named the tournament’s co-most valuable player.

“Does that mean I get my name on the wall?” an emotional Weatherspoon asked.

*

North Hollywood is usually one of the region’s top City girls’ teams, but the Huskies have faltered at the end of the last two seasons, when leading scorer Richelle Sherman was declared academically ineligible.

According to Coach Rich Allen, that won’t happen this season.

Sherman, a senior forward, is on an off-track schedule, meaning she is not attending classes during the season.

*

Two former girls’ players from the region traded baskets last week in a Bell-Jeff tournament consolation game.

Shaina Zaidi of Marlborough, a sophomore transfer from Burroughs, scored 39 points in a 78-68 victory over El Segundo.

Kelly Geis of El Segundo, a junior transfer from Moorpark, also scored 39 points and is averaging more than 30 points for the Eagles.