All coach Clarence Burton and the Chula Vista Spartans needed were some fresh legs, i.e., several football players from the CIF small schools championship team needed time to get in shape.

The Spartans started slowly in December while Chet DeVore’s gridders were engaged in the postseason, which concluded with a 12-6 win over Brawley.

With Larry Armbrust, Bob Neeley, Dave Erwin, Wally Anderson, Cecil Hall, and others on hand, the South Bay squad caught fire in January, raced to a 12-2 Metropolitan League record, and swept three playoff games to win another CIF title.

Closing at 19-9, the Spartans were 17-3 after a loss in the post-Christmas Chino tournament had left them with a 2-6 record.

Burton replaced DeVore, who had led the program from its beginning in 1947-48 and who had assumed the additional responsibility of coaching football in 1951.

DeVore probably bought principal Joe Rindone a box of cigars and took his boss to lunch.

Without basketball on his plate, DeVore would not have to end one season and plunge into another, as was the situation in 1952, when the playoff-bound Spartans’ football schedule overlapped into the winter sport.

It was not uncommon for the era.  Basketball coaches relied on football players, baseball and track coaches on basketball players.

REMATCH DIFFERENT

After topping Army-Navy, 49-39, in their first playoff, the Spartans advanced to a semifinal contest at Chaffey College in Ontario against Claremont, a 53-48 winner over Burton’s team in the Chino tournament consolation finals.

The rematch was no classic, with lots of whistles and a high level of anxiety in the fourth quarter, when neither team scored a field goal.

But Chula Vista advanced, 44-41, in a tense battle that saw the game tied 11 times and with 12 lead changes.

The Spartans made 16 of 20 free throw attempts and ex-footballer Cecil Hall, usually unsuccessful at the charity stripe, converted 9, including 5 in a row in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t think Chula Vista is better than us, but we couldn’t match that free-throw magic,” said losing coach Dave Stern.

The Spartans defeated St. Bernardine of San Bernardino, 61-44, for the championship. Burton and principal Joe Rindone submitted to a postgame shower, “Clothes and all,” noted Mel Zikes of the Evening Tribune.

The title game was played at Colton High, a site favorable to the Crusaders and selected after a three-way telephone call with Southern Section commissioner William Russell, Chula Vista principal Joe Rindone, and Crusaders coach Bill Bates.

Bates won when he guessed the most correct digits in a contest of odd-even telephone numbers.

CAVERS AIRED OUT

Not particularly well regarded despite its 22-4 record, San Diego was ushered out in the playoff quarterfinals, 56-51, by the favored Fillmore Flashes, who brought a 23-5 record and a portable oxygen tank for use during time outs.

As they had when playing Hoover in 1952, the Flashes shortened the 180-mile trip by busing 38 miles to Burbank and then flying to San Diego, arriving at the Hoover gym an hour before tipoff.

The Cavers had surprised the playoff field by defeating favored Alhambra, 68-56, at Whittier with a 40-point explosion in the second half.

Point Loma, the other San Diego playoff qualifier, completed a 18-8 season with a 58-43 loss at Huntington Beach.

LIKES INTERSECTIONALS

“Maybe I’ve got a peculiar idea on this, but I think our boys learn more playing some tough, outside opponent than by scrimmaging a neighbor whose system we already know,” said Kearny coach Ken Dowell.

The Komets made a peculiar road trip.  They traveled to Los Angeles to play the Pepperdine College freshmen.

Maybe it was a coincidence.  Maybe.

Dowell’s brother, Robert (Duck) Dowell, coached the Waves’ varsity.

The Peps’ freshies won, 48-33, and 69-46.

Kearny also took part in a doubleheader at La Jolla, where the Komets and host Vikings traded opponents, San Bernardino Pacific and Bishop, on successive nights.

La Jolla coach Don Hankins thought the scheduling might have represented a first in San Diego.  Doubleheaders weren’t new but not with two local teams participating on the same court.

The Vikings and Komets each swept the Northern opponents.

BUSY DECEMBER

Hoover and San Diego were not as successful in the North as their City Prep League counterparts.  Long Beach Poly defeated San Diego, 43-40, and Hoover, 69-39.   Jordan beat San Diego, 50-42, but lost to Hoover, 63-58.

Grossmont dropped a pair on the road to Redlands and Claremont.  San Bernardino came South for a single game at Point Loma.  Fallbrook hosted a tournament.  St. Augustine played in the Los Angeles Mt. Carmel tournament.

All action was a prelude to the seventh annual San Diego Kiwanis Tournament, which attracted 24 teams, including Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Inglewood, and Manhattan Beach Mira Costa.

San Diego topped Hoover, 54-44, for the Unlimited Division championship.  Coronado defeated Mar Vista, 48-33, for the Limited title.

Play began on Thursday afternoon and led to some unintended consequences.

The event was scheduled to end on Monday, but that meant that Beverly Hills would have had to spend four consecutive nights on the road, as they had done two years before.

Normans coach Steve Miletich, possibly hearing from campus bosses, received Kiwanis officials’ blessing and was able to bail on the fifth-place game with Point Loma without forfeiting.

TURN OUT THE LIGHTS

Tournament personnel had to adjust when a power outage darkened much of the Point Loma peninsula at about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, delaying two games scheduled for the Point Loma High gym.

Officials scrambled, moving the Grossmont-St. Augustine game to the Saints’ gym. The Kearny-Helix game became the fourth on the day’s card at San Diego High.

Future Evening Tribune sports writer Roger Conlee remembered years later:  “I was in the Point Loma gym that night.  Man, it was eerie, black as a cave.  A few people lit matches. Some Point Loma High person, probably a custodian,  eventually showed up with a flashlight.”

As Conlee recalled, about 20 minutes later the announcement of the venue shifts was made.

Helix and Kearny tipped at 10:30 p.m.  Until we hear otherwise we’ll call that the latest start ever for a couple local teams.

SCORERS

Coronado’s Tom Noonan was the County leader with a 19.4 average and 448 points in 23 games.

Point Loma’s Homer Krantz was the City League leader with 339 in 26 games (13.0). Chula Vista’s Blake Neal had 392 points in 28 games (14.0).  Prep writers usually kept only points and averages from league games.

St. Augustine’s 6-foot, 5-inch, junior center John Cunningham scored  43 points in an 86-33 win over Brown Military. Cunningham bettered the school record of 36, set by Jim Mooney in 1951-52 and equaled by Hank Zumstein in 1952-53.  The County record of 47 was set by Fallbrook’s Paul Lockridge in 1950-51.

The Saints, struggling to book a full schedule as independents, won 10 of 18, with Cunningham scoring 330 points for a 18.3 average.

WHAT THE…?

San Dieguito center Vincent Vint tapped in a Mar Vista shot for two points.

Let’s try that again.

San Dieguito center Vincent Vint tapped in a Mar Vista shot for two points.

We were correct the first time.

Vint’s wrong-way hoop proved the difference in the Metro League contest.

The Mustangs and Mariners tied at 53 in regulation play and Mar Vista won in overtime, 55-53.

TROUBLE WITHOUT HARRY

Hoover was 5-5 in its last 10 games and out of the playoffs after starting 12-2.  The Cardinals could not overcome the loss of forward Harry Wilson, who sustained a broken ankle.

Wilson was leading City scorers with 188 points and 13.4 average in 14 games.

LOOPS TO GET BREAKS 

The 14-game City Prep League round robin was the longest  in local history,  but the massive restructuring that took place at the CIF Southern Section executive committee meeting in Los Angeles in December promised to loosen schedules.

The formation of the Avocado League would take North County schools and Coronado out of the Metropolitan League beginning in September, 1954, and the Metro would welcome Helix and Grossmont from the City.

Changes were necessary because the City added Lincoln to the lineup this season and Mission Bay would join next school year.

BOSSES TO SAINTS:  DROP DEAD!

Although shut out at the December CIF re-leaguing meeting (search “1953: Welcome, Avocado League”), St. Augustine tried again, but the Saints were rebuffed by the City and Metro leagues.

The City rejected a Saints application on grounds that the “new loop was set up to include schools under the supervision of the San Diego school superintendent,” wrote St. Augustine alumnus Harry Monahan and prep chronicler for The San Diego Union.

“A few days later the revised Metro League had advised St. Augustine that its request to join that loop had been disapproved because the applicant was a private school,” said Monahan.

HORNETS?

They originally were called the “Pennies” or “Presidents” but Lincoln, without a senior class until next year, was destined to become known as the Hornets.

Coach Don Smith’s team practiced at Municipal Gym in Balboa Park and played “home” games at San Diego and Hoover.

“We’re not thinking about any league championships, but we’ll be out to win and learn as much as we can…” said Smith, who played at Hoover and San Diego State before launching his coaching career at Mar Vista.

The Hornets staggered to a 2-18 record.  Their first game was a 49-30 loss to Chula Vista at Municipal gym and they opened City League play with a 50-26 loss to Helix.

JUMP SHOTS

Coach Richard Gronquist’s Army-Navy Warriors were 15-6 overall, wrapped a second consecutive Southern Prep League title, and extended a streak of 20 consecutive league victories…Helix, 7-14 overall and 5-9 in the City League, upset Hoover, 43-41, and stunned San Diego, 52-40…Hoover coach Charlie Hampton, looking for the right combination, or giving everyone a chance, or both, had used 16 players who scored at least one point through December…St. Augustine’s B team finished with a 19-1 record…Chula Vista B’s defeated Escondido, 34-32, to wrap a 14-0 Metropolitan League campaign…Hoover’s B’s played in the postseason Santa Monica B tournament, defeating Torrance, 36-31, and bowing to Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, 42-20…with as many as 10 expected players still involved with the  football team, Chula Vista was no match for San Diego in the season-opening game, losing, 58-31 after trailing, 38-14, at halftime…Hoover was outscored, 26-18, from the field but made 16 free throws to defeat San Diego, 34-29…Alhambra coach Claude Miller revealed that he was a “shirt-tail relative” of San Diego coach Merrill Douglas’…the mentors apparently were distantly connected by marriage…Chula Vista’s Blake Neal led all scorers with 85 points in four Chino Tournament games…”It’s good we have so many boys named David (including starters Jarvis and Inman) on the club…they’re going to have to be giant killers (for us) to get anywhere in the City Prep League,” said La Jolla coach Don Hankins…the Vikings were third with a 9-5 record and 17-8 overall…the Christmas pageant at Grossmont ousted the Grossmont and Helix teams…the squads had to move outside and practice on the Foothillers’ macadam courts…Municipal Gym also was the practice site for Kearny, which played home games at La Jolla, and Chula Vista was a tenant at Sweetwater…San Diego played on a partially warped home floor after water leaked onto the surface and remained for several days during the Christmas vacation…the Cavers’ playoff against Fillmore was at Hoover for that reason….

Charles Sanford finished the perfect race.

Etched in my memory: Edwards Stadium, Berkeley, 1963 state track meet, final event, 880-yard relay. San Diego High against the field at the end of the two-day program.

Sanford and teammates Walter (Buddah) Blackledge, Gordon Baker, and Raymond Dixon, were considered one of the better entries coming into the meet with a best time of 1:27.2, but there were other, more favored teams  from the Los Angeles City and Southern sections.

Sanford, who passed away at age 72 recently, was an attacking sprinter, grinding out his races with each stride, and the best at San Diego High since the days of Roscoe Cook and Bobby Staten a decade before.

Sanford had set a San Diego Section record of :09.6 in the 100-yard dash the week before and had a best of :19.2 in the 180-yard low hurdles.

He qualified in neither event in the Friday trials  but was fresh and ready for the baton chase the next day.

The Cavers got off to a good start when Blackledge came out of the blocks with a :22-flat first 220, handing off to Gordon Baker, who put some distance between himself and the pack with a :21.3 second leg.

Baker a sometimes erratic sprinter-quartermiler, ran the most important leg, because he was able to make the second pass from the pole position to Dixon.

With the posse in hot pursuit, Dixon held the inside lane, running his furlong in :21.7, and maintaining Baker’s lead as Dixon passed to  Sanford.

Anchor man Sanford closed with a :21.3 leg, increasing San Diego’s winning advantage  to about five yards.

The Cavers had covered the distance in 1:26.3, second fastest in the country that year; almost one second faster than they had run the week before,  and bettered the record they had shared with the 1957 Cook-Staten-Charles Davis-Willie Jordan team.

Los Angeles Manual Arts was second in 1:26.8.

What I remember most were the flawless handoffs as the Cavers protected the baton amid the pressure of flying spikes, and streaking bodies in a high-powered race.

Sanford, who also was a football standout at San Diego, will be honored in a funeral service Monday, April 3, at 11 a.m. at Missionary Baptist Church in Logan Heights.

 

 

 

An otherwise quiet campaign shortened by war was energized in the season’s last game.

Ivan Robinson, the younger brother of 1941-42 San Diego star Ermer Robinson, scored 38 points, including 25 in the second half of a 70-23, season-ending victory over Kearny.

News accounts reported that no prep in the area had ever rung up that many in one game.. Bob Ingle of Coronado scored 35 in a 57-16 win over La Jolla in the 1939-40 season.

Headline writers wiped figurative omelets off their ink-stained faces.

Robinson’s scoring outburst and closing rush also snatched the scoring title from La Jolla’s Bill Pince, and belied bold exclamations just days before.

IT’S OVER?

Pince, who had games of 28 and 24 points and averaged 19 a game in his last three, was declared the winner, although all points were yet to be scored.  The Vikings’ standout appeared to have a lock, with 102 points in eight games to teammate Frank Fleming’s 74, Robinson’s 68, and the 67 of San Diego’s Sal Gumina.

Pince’s season was complete as San Diego and Hoover prepared for a late-season nonleague encounter.  Pince was scheduled to compete against a representative from every Victory League team in a free-throw contest at halftime of the Cardinals-Cavers contest.

Robinson’s 7 points and Gumina’s 8 against Hoover did not count in the league scoring race, so there was little drama expected four days later when the Cavers took on Kearny in the Hilltop gym on the final Tuesday night.

Robinson divided his 38 points between 17 baskets and 4 free throws to finish the league season with 106 points and a 13.3 average to Pince’s 12.8.

DOUBTFUL LEGACY

The 6-foot, 2 inch Robinson and Gumina were part of a historically outstanding  team but one that became little more than a blip in the school’s athletic history.

The Cavers were the marquee squad on a County basketball map that spanned Varsity (Class A) to B, C, and D classifications, with probably more than a hundred organized, high school, college, and defense industry teams commanding area indoor or outdoor courts.

But as the war continued to rage in the South Pacific and Europe, newspaper coverage of the preps was thin, sports departments limited by a lack of personnel and space.

Editors relied on wire service reports.  There were few local bylines in The San Diego Union and The Tribune-Sun, the city’s two dailies.

Stories were short, game action photos rare, and feature articles rarer.

Players continued to leave school for the military or for midterm graduation.

San Diego coach Merrill Douglas was gone until after the war.

JOHNNY ON SPOT

Douglas’ replacement was John Brose, who moved to the gymnasium from the practice field after assisting Bill Bailey’s varsity football team.

Brose inherited four lettermen, led by Robinson and Sal Gumina, who would earn an all-Southern California second team selection.

The Cavers fashioned a 13-1 record under Brose and raced through the Victory League with an 8-0 record, lording it over  their opponents by an average score of 49-17.

The schedule included four games with crosstown rival Hoover, which was 14-5 overall.

In the only league game between the teams, Sal Gumina’s overtime basket gave the Hilltoppers a 24-22 victory.

San Diego won two other clashes with the Cardinals before dropping a 40-38 decision late in the season, when Hoover’s Bobby Greenman sank a 35-foot shot with 10 seconds remaining.

MORE HOOPS

There was no postseason, so most members from Brose’s squad hooked on with the San Diego YMCA team and won the Southern California Y championship.

It was at the Y event that several Los Angeles-area coaches voiced the opinion that Brose’s team would have been a strong contender for a CIF Southern Section title, according to Don King in Caver Conquest.

The CIF suspended playoffs after the 1943-44 and 1944-45 seasons.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

San Diego drivers were warned.

Twenty-two signs signaling a speed limit of 35 were erected on San Diego thoroughfares, with 24 more ordered.

The speed laws were in effect for El Cajon Boulevard to La Mesa; El Cajon Blvd., to Russ Blvd.; Pacific Highway from the North end of the San Diego River Bridge to Harbor Drive, and from Pacific Highway to Eighth Street and Roosevelt Avenue in National City.

SET SHOTS

“I think we’d finish first or second with an indoor gym,” said La Jolla coach Larry Hansen, whose team was 5-3 and shared Victory League “minor division” honors with Coronado…Hoover seemed to have the officials on its  side but missed 16 free throws in a 32-30 loss to the Alumni…the gulf between the good and the bad was vast…after a 46-26 loss to San Diego, Hoover turned around and defeated Vocational, 61-31…San Diego defeated Vocational, 61-17…Hoover’s late-season win over San Diego was accomplished despite the mid-term graduation loss of Don Nuttall, who had 20 points in his final game, a 32-30 win over Point Loma, which was losing Billy Kettenberg and his 11.3 average to graduation…Bobbie Phelps (15) and Eddie Crain (13) picked up for Nuttall against San Diego…San Diego (8-0)) was followed by Grossmont (7-1) and Hoover (6-2) in Class B standings….Hoover won in Class C and Kearny in Class D in the eight-team Coronado Invitational…Coronado scheduled neighboring wartime teams…the Islanders topped the Naval Air Station, 37-36, while the trans-bay team’s Bees dropped a 45-20 decision to Naval Air Ninth Division….

 

 

John Singer has seen the greatest Helix teams from the bench.

He was an underclassman reserve on the 1969-70 squad led by Bill Walton that posted a 33-0 record and is regarded  as not only the best team to come out of the La Mesa foothills but the all-time No. 1 in San Diego County.

Singer’s also the coach, and the winner of 679 games in 36 seasons at Helix, of this season’s team, which will play Vallejo St. Patrick-St. Vincent Saturday at 1 p.m. in the CIF state Division IV championship game at Sacramento’s Golden Center.

Helix is 31-5, and winner of 22 in a row.  It got to this point by prevailing in four successive games at home during the Southern California regional after earning a No. 2 seed following a championship run through the San Diego Section playoffs.

Walton competed  before San Diego Section teams were part of Southern California regional or state playoffs.

But that Helix team averaged 88 points a game, exceeded 100 points six times, and scored a 71-49 victory over Long Beach Millikan, the 1969-70 Southern Section champion, in  a December tournament in Covina.

Singer’s club outscored opponents by an average of 60-55 in a 9-5 December, but has not lost since Dec. 30 and are winning by an average score of 71-53.

The Scots were almost as effective against competition from outside San Diego, building an average advantage of 70-57 in the four regional games.

Vallejo St. Francis-St. Patrick of the North Coast Section is 27-7, won the Northern California regional, and outscored 4 opponents by an average of 82-43.

Helix and St. Patrick each is a bubble team in Cal-Hi Sports’ latest top state top 20, but the Bruins are ranked 37^th in California by Max Preps and Helix is 69^th.

Galvanized Americans had Victory on their minds as the war moved into its second year.

San Diego school officials, living in the hub of the defense industry, pitched in.  They created the Victory League and put the Metropolitan League in a basketball drydock.

Call theirs a New Year’s Resolution.

Coronado coach Hal Niedermeyer had announced a Metro schedule of one round of nine games on December 10.

But on Jan. 12, when play got under way, the circuit had a new name, a positive acknowledgement of Uncle Sam’s rallying cry for Victory in Europe and Japan.

The Metro, born in 1933 and inclusive of the city’s and suburbs’ smaller schools, would not return until after the 1945-46 academic year.

OFF ROAD?

Low fuel tanks and balding tires were by-products of the need for precious wartime materials.

Necessary gas rationing and travel restrictions were such that the league did not include all members who competed in the similar Metropolitan loop during football season.

Victory travel would be by streetcar or bus.

Suburban Sweetwater and rural Escondido and Oceanside were forced to bail.

Night games were at the option of host schools.

As they did in football for the 1942 season, local titans San Diego High and Hoover split their squads.  Four teams included the San Diego Blues and Whites and the Hoover Reds and Whites.

WE GOT GAME

Military personnel and defense workers needed outlets, free of the stressful demands of their jobs.

Dozens of basketball teams were formed.

Some were unique, such as the Spot Welders of the Solar Day Shift League.

There also were teams named the Balloon Battalion, B-24 Fuselage, Machine Shop, Tool Controls, Bombing 12, Naval Air Personnel, 10th Replacement Center, Armed Guard, and Submarine Repair.

Not to mention Naval Training Station Dental Clinic, Provisional Battalion, the Elliott Leathernecks, Point Loma Radio School, and the Solar Aircraft Dawn Patrol.

And more.

MY ALMA MATER

Several months after graduation at San Diego and before he entered the military, Ermer Robinson still had his game.

Robinson scored 17 points, including the winning free throw with 20 seconds remaining as the Alumni defeated the San Diego varsity, 30-29, in one of the few December games throughout the County.

Frank Pietila played for the Hilltoppers varsity while his brother Paul was on the Alumni B team that lost to the school B’s, 38-32.

SHRILL WHISTLES

Earl Keller of The Tribune-Sun pulled no punches.

“In a game that was all but ruined by over officiating on the part of Pete Burk and Don Clarkson, Herbert Hoover’s cagers scored a last-minute, 34-33 win in their city championship series opener over San Diego High before an overflow crowd in the Hiller gym,” wrote Keller.

Burk and Clarkson called 29 fouls “and had the players afraid to breathe,” noted the scribe, incidentally a San Diego High graduate.

Leo Tuck, who would be a midterm graduate the following week and later played at San Diego State, emerged from a crowd under the basket to score and give the Hoover varsity a 34-33 victory.

The combined teams would meet twice during the season and the rival split squads would meet four times.

San Diego won the second game between the combined teams, 35-25, and the varsity, Blues, and Whites were 5-1 against Hoover, counting all games.

A’s AND B’s

San Diego’s split squads won the Class A title with a  13-1 record, the Whites going 7-0 and the Blues 6-1, the only blemish a 33-32 loss to Point Loma.

Against all competition, San Diego was 17-6, including Blues and Whites combined teams.

One of the combined team losses was 42-32 to Camp Callan, a rugged Army anti-aircraft squad that scored more than 100 points against multiple service teams.

The Hoover Class B team, a power and school favorite for a decade, won that classification with a 12-2 record.  The Cardinals’ combined Reds and Whites were 10-4, and 11-4 against all competition.

KEEPING IT IN FAMILY

Johnny Correia of Point Loma scored a running set shot from near the half-court line in the final seconds of a 38-25 loss to Hoover to finish with 16 points and earn his second straight Victory scoring title.

Correia, who had 102 points in league play, was joined on the all-Victory League team by Hoover’s Don Nuttall, who had 101 points.

Other first-team choices were the Cardinals’ Don Smith and San Diego’s Sal Gumina and Jim Glasson, who also was all-Southern Section third team.

Correia’s  brother Frank made the Victory second team and cousin Ed was on the B first team.

KEEPING IT IN FAMILY II

San Diego High midterm graduate Frank Pietila was on the second all-Victory League team and played municipal and AAU basketball for years in San Diego.

Pietila’s son, Ron, played professional baseball after graduating from Sweetwater and became an honored coach in San Diego and throughout California, known as the “Godfather of Girls Soccer.”

Frank, who coached youth baseball and  scouted talent for major league baseball teams, also is the great grandfather of  Micah Pietila-Wiggs, who starred on Chula Vista’s 2013 Eastlake team that won the Little League World Championship.

WHAT’S YOUR TRADE?

San Diego Vocational, which opened in September, 1941, fielded a team and joined the Victory League when Sweetwater, Oceanside, and Escondido backed out.

Vocational competed in most sports except football  before being merged after the 1954-55 school year into technical and shop departments at San Diego High.

The school was aligned with San Diego JC before moving to a more permanent location at State and Market streets in downtown San Diego in 1948.

SET SHOTS

So he didn’t mistake one for the other, San Diego coach Merrill Douglas asked brothers Mitch and Ben Rosenthal to get different style haircuts…Vocational’s first victory was 58-45 over a team known as the “Mission Beach Champs” as Larry Hansen scored 22 points…Sweetwater developed an intra-school team competition in which every boy enrolled was invited…success of the Victory League in football and basketball encouraged participation in spring sports; principals met at Hoover on Feb. 16 and decided to go ahead with baseball and track, with a precautionary “Only necessary travel to games would be permitted,” said La Jolla principal Dr. Earl Andreen…after winning eight consecutive practice games, La Jolla flattened out to 9-7…former Escondido football coach Harry Wexler, who coached a military team in 1941-42, was Vocational’s coach…teams that did not have campus gymnasiums and played on outdoor courts, were able to access the San Diego gym when the Blues and Whites were playing elsewhere…Point Loma defeated Grossmont, 26-17, for its first victory over the Foothillers since 1938…the San Diego County Officials’ Association announced that any surplus money from the season would be turned over to war bonds….

 

The Helix boys and Serra girls are still in the hunt.

Both teams have reached the finals of the Southern California Regional playoffs, last step before the state championships March 24-25 at the Golden Center in Sacramento.

Helix (30-5), the No. 2 seed in Division IV, defeated Carson of the L.A. City Section, 56-53, for its 21st consecutive victory, 15^th in a row at home, and now will play its fourth straight game as host, Saturday night at 6.

The Highlanders will take on Reedley Immanuel (23-8), with the winner meeting the Northern California champion, either Salinas Palma or Vallejo St. Patrick-St. Vincent, which also play Saturday evening.

D-III six seed Serra (23-10) qualified to meet 1 seed Anaheim Rosary (28-5) after a 57-51 win over No. 2 Camarillo.

SIX ELIMINATED

St. Augustine strived mightily against the taller and favored hosts from Santa Ana Mater Dei, but the Saints were only 6 for 22 in three-point attempts and committed 22 turnovers in a 63-57 loss.

Taeshon Cherry scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds for the San Diego club and was the best player on the floor.

The Saints should be back knocking on the door again in 2017-18.

Fourteen D-III seed Orange Glen’s unexpected ride came to an end when the Patriots were outscored, 17-7, in overtime and dropped a 72-62 decision at No. 2-ranked Villa Park.

Mission Hills was a 66-57 loser at Long Beach Poly and The Bishop’s, after a 315-mile ride, over the Grapevine and up Highway 99, were run off the floor by Clovis West, 73-31, in Girls’ Open Division contests.

Rancho Bernardo was a 57-49 loser to Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos in D-IV, and Olympian was ousted, 70-53, by Riverside Notre Dame in D-V.

FINAL STATE SELECTIONS

With Cal-Hi Sports’ last rankings to be made after the state finals. San Diego’s representation could change.

St. Augustine had moved from seventh to fourth before the Mater Dei game and Torrey Pines was 15^th in boys’ play.

Mission Hills was fourth in the girls’ rankings and The Bishop’s had jumped from unranked to 12^th after upsetting Studio City Harvard-Westlake, 63-60, in the quarterfinals.