When it was all over, there was just one honor that eluded Terri Mann.
She was runner-up in voting for the Gatorade U.S. high school player of the year.
Go figure.
Mann hadn’t been second in anything during her four brilliant years and four consecutive state championships at Point Loma.
Mann was the Gatorade Circle of Champions player of the year in California and for the Gatorade Pacific Region, but the 6-foot, 2-inch Point Loma senior was nosed out for the national player–of-the-year award by Kris Durham, a 5-foot, 8-inch guard from Union Catholic in Scotch Plains, N.J.
Eastern bias?
Point Loma coach Lee Trepanier said he received a plaque honoring Mann as “national player of the year in big, bold letters”, but a Gatorade official told Trepanier that, no, the plaque was just for her state and regional honor.
DREADED ADMINISTRATIVE GLITCH
”They just screwed up (with the plaque). They should be embarrassed,” Trepanier told Mark Zeigler of The San Diego Union.
“Where they really screwed up is not choosing Terri in the first place,” said Trepanier. “If there’s a better player in the United States, they’ve got her hidden under a rock somewhere.”
Durham averaged 28 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and five steals,and finished with a career total of 2,574 points.
Mann averaged 35.57 points with 1,174 this season. Her career total of 3,188 was second all-time in California to the 3,446 of Riverside Poly’s Cheryl Miller.
Mann also holds San Diego Section career records for one-season rebounds (816), career rebounds (2,256), season steals (250), and career steals (652)
COACH EXONERATED
San Diego Section commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb ruled that allegations of violations against Point Loma coach Lee Trepanier were unfounded.
Trepanier was investigated for allegedly recruiting star Terri Mann by visiting her home before she was in high school.
Trepanier also was cleared of spending what would have exceeded state CIF limits on state championship rings for the 1985-86 team.
“I have never done anything illegal. I never intend to do anything illegal,” said Trepanier.
“I’’m glad Kendall came up with that decision,” Trepanier confirmed to Mark Zeigler. “I know that it’s going to make some people unhappy, because if you’re winning there’s some people out there who think you’ve cheated….”
More moments of the regular season:
12/6/86
Mahlon Williams, who turned out late after playing linebacker for the football team, warmed up in his second game of the season with 36 points for Sweetwater in an 86-74 win over Hoover.
12/9/86
Sweetwater’s Mahlon Williams was declared academically ineligible and 6-5 center Sean Styles left the team. The Red Devils fell to Point Loma, 65-53. Days later, guard Scott Catlin was sidelined with a groin injury.
Styles would return. So would Catlin and Williams became eligible in early February.
–Liza Carrillo scored 29 and Monica Filer 22 as a sore back forced Terri Mann sit out a 55-24 win over Torrey Pines in the Point Loma 7-Up Classic.
VARSITY WOWED
12/10/86
Unusual for the era, Morse scheduled an alumni team and was surprised, 84-70, by the well-conditioned graduates.
“There was a lot of all-CIF talent out there,” noted Tigers coach Ron Davis.
David Gayden, class of 1984, scored 19 points.
12/11/86
Crawford actually led the Point Loma girls, 12-6, at the end of the first quarter. Final score, Pointers 72, Colts 41. Liza Carrillo (23) Monica Filer (21), and Terri Mann (18) roused Coach Lee Trepanier’s somambulant club.
12/17/86
Terri Mann was hit with a fourth personal foul and went to bench three minutes into the second quarter. The opponent was 8-0 Vista, the second-ranked team in the County.
Not to worry. The 6-foot, 2-inch Mann returned after a 9-2 Vista run and led the Pointers to a 62-42 victory, scoring 23 points and avoiding a fifth personal.
MUST RETURN HOME
12/19-20/86
Morse and Sweetwater were co-hosts to Wilmington Banning of the Los Angeles City Section and Pasadena Muir of the Southern Section.
Morse was the home team on Friday night and defeated Banning, 66-53. Sweetwater, jolted by the loss of three starters, was a 99-52 victim of Muir.
Banning could not stay overnight, so Madison played Sweetwater Saturday evening and scored a 70-52 victory.
A 23-10 third quarter was enough to offset a 24-11 fourth quarter by Morse as Muir went home a 75-69 winner.
12/22/86
Point Loma scored a 1-0 forfeit over the San Marcos girls. The Knights’ bus broke down in Del Mar and the team could not get to the Pointers’ gym in time for a game.
12/23/86
Junior Seau, out to practice late from football, was tournament most-valuable player and scored 20 points as Oceanside edged crosstown rival El Camino, 37-31, for the championship of the Lt. Jim Mitchell event at San Dieguito.
12/28/86
Morse (Unlimited Division) defeated Mira Mesa 60-54; Seal Beach Los Alamitos (Limited) topped La Jolla, 68-48, and St. Augustine (Classified) nipped Clairemont, 68-65, for championships in the 40th Kiwanis Tournament.
Reported tournaments: Hilltop, Torrey Pines, Mt. Helix, Parker, Foothiller, Elsinore, Kern County Shootout at Bakersfield, West Coast at San Jose, Mountain Empire, Don Volpi at Goleta, Jim Mitchell, Kiwanis, Rohr-Aztec at Montgomery, Santana, Point Loma 7-Up, Point Loma Ben Fisher, Bonita Vista Baron Optimist.
MANN, OH MANN!
12/31/86
Terri Mann took over the Ben Fisher tournament on her home court with 65 points in a 109-35 win over Chula Vista and with 48 three days later in a 100-18 rout of Bonita Vista.
Mann broke the San Diego Section single-game record of 60 points by Hilltop’s Linda Nelson in a game against Southwest in the 1975-76 season and by El Camino’s Sharon Turner against Ramona in 1984-85.
MIND OVER MATTER
1/16/87
To the Evening Tribune’s Don Norcross, Junior Seau said, “I was just out there with my body,” after a 22-point game.
Concentration had become a difficult for the Parade Magazine football all-America as recruiters hounded the 6-foot, 5-inch Oceanside superstar.
So Seau told his coaches, “No recruiters for the rest of the week.”
Able to concentrate, Seau scored a season-high 32 points on 14×19 shooting, with 12 rebounds, 4 blocks, and a couple “Magic Johnson-like” assists in a 64-51 win over San Marcos.
–After a steal of an inbounds pass, Granite Hills’ Mark Phillips scored, was fouled, and converted a free throw for a 50-47 win over Helix, ending the Eagles’ 50-game losing streak to the Highlanders, dating to the 1960s.
NOT HAPPY CAMPER
1/24/87
Ron Davis wasn’t pleased after a 68-60 victory over 11-5 Madison.
“We were up by 16 points with four minutes to play (actually 3:25) and they got it down to six,” the 13-1 Morse coach complained to Bud Maloney of The Tribune. “This is a senior ball club and that shouldn’t happen.”
–Clairemont ended six consecutive years of Western League losses to La Jolla, 47-46.
1/27/87
Terri Mann scored an almost routine 47 points as the Point Loma girls whipped Serra, 73-31.
1/30/87
A devastating threesome of Terri Mann (45 points), Liza Carillo (29), Monica Filer (15) scored all but five points in Point Loma’s 94-29 win over Morse.
2/3/87
It wasn’t pretty but Mira Mesa persevered, 76-73, over Madison after 21 fouls were called in the first quarter, 56 for the game, and three Warhawks and two Marauders fouled out.
2/4/87
Mahlon Williams returned for Sweetwater after missing 17 games for academic malfeasance and scored 17 points in 19 minutes, with three blocked shots, and eight rebounds in the Red Devils’ 57-50 win over Chula Vista.
–Mira Mesa capped a big week with a 39-38 win over Eastern League front-runner Morse on Scott Cummings’ 15-foot, baseline shot with 15 seconds left.
2/10/87
Six-foot, 5-inch Charley Applegate scored 28 points to lead St. Augustine to an 80-76, overtime victory against Western League leader Lincoln.
Applegate also sent the game into overtime with two free throws with two seconds left and scored the clinching basket in the extra session.
–Terri Mann scored 51 points, Liza Carrillo 16, and Monica Filer 15 as Point Loma topped Madison, 95-36.
2/11/87
Castle Park kept alive a 23-game Metropolitan Conference winning streak by coming from behind in the final 40 seconds to defeat Bonita Vista, 64-62.
The Trojans’ Vince Bucca drained a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left. “I was just telling myself, ‘Think about how many free throws you’ve made in your life…just relax…just let it flow,’” Bucca said.
2/12/87
Clairemont clinched a playoff spot for the first time since the 1975-76 season, 53-40 over La Jolla.
The Chieftains’ 16-6 record was the best since a 22-8 finish in 1971-72.
Coached by former UCLA star Greg Lee, the orange-and-blue-clad Chieftains of Ute Drive overcame a 1-22 record in 1985-86, Lee’s first season.
2/13/87
El Camino, routed by Oceanside, 67-52, in the first round of Avocado League play, knocked off the front-running Pirates, 65-61, snapping their 10-game winning streak.
Edmond Johnson led the way for the Wildcats with 21 points and 10 assists.
2/18/87
Clairemont’s 57-46 loss to University City allowed Kearny to claim the Western League title with a 76-63 decision against University.
2/20/87
Castle Park ended the regular-season with a Metropolitan Conference home-game winning streak of 25 games, 94-40 over Coronado.
–Madison teams earned playoff bids with 53-31 (girls) and 63-46 boys wins over Patrick Henry.
