There were two races in the Eastern League, one with four teams see-sawing through the season seeking two playoffs berths, and another, weekly shootout between Crawford’s Larry Blum and San Diego’s Elburt Miller.

St. Augustine (19-5), led by Bob Spence, Mike (Zeke) Shea, Jimmy Antl, John Emerson, and Gary Hoffman, held off Crawford (24-6-1), Hoover (18-8), and San Diego (19-8) and won its first league championship in any sport since joining the City Prep League in 1957.

But Crawford, the presumptive favorite at the start of the season, prevailed in the San Diego Section playoffs.

CIF honchos resolved what was described by The San Diego Union’s Chuck Sawyer as a “long and bitter argument” by voting after the 1961-62 season to allow teams to participate in two tournaments.  Several schools had begun a trend of skipping the traditional Kiwanis event to participate in similar tests in other locales.

Coaches, players, and fans had complained about short-sighted goals and thinking  since the Section was formed in 1960.

SCORING SOARING

Blum, a 5-foot, 11-inch guard, scored 737 points in 31 games and broke the County record by one point.  St. Augustine’s Tom Shaules had 736 in 1957-58.  Miller, a 6-3 forward, scored 689 points in 27 games and had the highest average, 25.5.

Miller also broke a 19-year-old San Diego High single-game scoring record.  He had 39 in a 68-55 win at home over Lincoln to better the mark of 38 by Ivan Robinson in the 1943-44 season.

Miller’s record would be topped later in the decade when Oscar Foster scored 40 and then 41.

OTHERS FIND THE NET

There were at least two dozen players after  Blum and Miller who contributed to a sharp, upward trend in scoring.

Kearny’s Dick Dowling (570), Granite Hills’ Bob Lundgren (513), Hilltop’s Bob Gray (479), Crawford’s Dick Woodson (460), Grossmont’s Bill Biggs (453) La Jolla’s Dave Grund (447), and Morse’s Kenny Leininger (407) were among 26 players who scored at least 300 points.

A decade before you could count the number of 300-point scorers on one hand, without counting the thumb.  Eleven players scored 300 or more points in 1961-62.

KIWANIS

The season usually started in the last week of November but the mid-December San Diego Kiwanis Tournament, one of the largest in the state, signaled that basketball would be king for the next three months.

The 16th annual event, involving almost 400 athletes, 32 teams, and eight venues, was the first of six different that kept several local squads busy through the Christmas holiday.

Crawford, 5-0, was top seed in the Unlimited Division and 7-0 La Jolla was favored in the Limited Division for smaller schools.

Granite Hills’ Bob Lundgren scored 41 points in a 62-54 win over San Dieguito.  La Jolla’s Dave Grund made 16 baskets and 32 points in a 72-38 victory against Morse. Larry Blum had 30 in an 82-42 win over El Capitan and 34 in an 81-59 rout of Lincoln.

An all-Eastern League semifinal was averted when Sweetwater upset 8-0 St. Augustine, 60-49.  Crawford eliminated San Diego, 48-41, although Blum was held to six points, all free throws.  Hoover, a 72-53 loser to Hilltop earlier, defeated the Lancers, 49-41, and Sweetwater, 50-43, setting up a Cardinals-Colts final.

DARKNESS

Crawford defeated the Cardinals, 55-49, but its lead was only 46-45 with 4:13 remaining in the game.  At that point the lights dimmed at Peterson Gym.  The approximate 3,000 persons in attendance stirred restlessly through a 32-minute delay.

Hoover outscored the Colts, 44-32, from the field but Crawford had a 23-5 edge in free throws.

La Jolla wrapped the Limited Division with a 65-48 win over Western League rival Mission Bay.

Blum and teammate Dick Woodson were joined on the all-tournament team by Hoover’s Bob Powell and Gilbert Hernandez, and John Adams of Sweetwater.  The Limited Division squad included Lundgren and Grund, Charlie Buchanan of La Jolla, Richard Vera of Mission Bay, and Marty (The Mop) Jensen of Coronado.

MUSTANG-OPTIMIST

La Jolla was 2 for 2 in tournaments after scoring the last nine points to defeat Mission Bay, 51-48, in a repeat of the Kiwanis final.  The Vikings also defeated Kearny, 68-44, and tournament host San Dieguito, 72-57.

SAN BERNARDINO

Elburt Miller set scoring and rebound records and the Cavers topped Redlands, 57-29, for the consolation championship.  San Diego lost its opener, 49-47, to Riverside Poly, and then defeated Riverside Ramona, 65-57, and San Bernardino Pacific, 58-55.

Miller scored 24, 29, 31, and 25 points for a total of 109 and had 78 rebounds.

Froebel Brigham, a starter on Coach Bill Standly’s squad, also served as an on-site reporter, filing game accounts with The San Diego Union.

NEWPORT HARBOR OPTIMIST

Grossmont held off Santa Monica, 60-57, for the consolation championship.

FILLMORE

Helix was beaten by Santa Paula, 71-61, in the semifinals and by Bishop, 47-42, in the third place game.

COVINA

In reaching the finals of the 32-team event, Crawford played five games in six days.  Trailing, 32-30 at halftime of the championship against host Covina, the Colts faltered and saw a 13-game winning streak end with a 57-50 defeat.

Dick Woodson scored 22 points and Larry Blum 20.  No other Colt scored a field goal.

Blum scored 25, 44, 10, 22, and 20 points during the tournament and had a shot at the single game record of 48 but was whistled to the bench with his fifth foul midway of the fourth quarter in an 87-35 win over La Puente.

“I think I had forty-four with seven or eight minutes to play and then picked up three charging fouls running through the key and on two of them there was no contact, so I fouled out and I think we won by fifty,” Blum recalled years later.

Blum was 17×32 from the field for 53 per cent and scored 21 points in the second quarter.

The Colts’ other victories were 68-49 over West Covina Edgewood, 65-43 over San Gabriel, and 67-47 over West Covina.

Hoover was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Crescenta Valley, 50-47, after 69-30 and 60-46 victories over Baldwin Park and Glendale.

Mount Miguel lost its opener, 50-44, to Norwalk and then marched to the Consolation bracket championship, 52-34 over Lawndale Lennox, 44-38 over Edgewood, and 66-44 over Covina Northview.

GROSSMONT LEAGUE

Helix and Grossmont tied for second with 9-3 records. Rather than conduct a vote among league bosses to determine a second playoff participant, Grossmont principal Walter Barnett got his colleagues to agree to a playoff at neutral El Cajon Valley.

The San Diego Section board of managers vetoed.

CIF commissioner Don Clarkson pointed out that the teams had played a schedule of 20 games plus participated in two tournaments and that the board of managers had enacted a rule prohibiting playoffs before the playoffs.

Barnett knew the inconvenience of unresolved ties.  As a lineman on Grossmont’s 1927 team, Barnett was on the field for a 0-0 playoff with Calexico.  The CIF Southern Section ruled that the teams play again to determine the small schools’ champion. Grossmont blanked Calexico, 9-0.

The Foothillers also won the vote for the postseason berth.  Helix finished at 16-11. Grossmont also would close with a 16-11 record after a 56-51 playoff loss to St. Augustine.

SCOTS HAVE A HOME

Bob Divine, who had campaigned for years for a gymnasium at Helix, had mixed feelings.

After more than a decade of practicing outdoors and playing most of their home games at Grossmont, a new facility rose on the Helix campus.

Divine was there as Helix defeated Monte Vista, 49-38, in a Grossmont League game that inaugurated the 1,800-seat showcase.

No longer coaching, Divine was vice-principal at Monte Vista.

MATADORS, OLE!

At 10-2 in the league and with a final record of 20-9, Mount Miguel was breathing rarefied air.

The Matadors, who began play in 1957-58, had posted an overall record of 34-71 in their first five seasons.

Larry McCollister’s 28 points led a 55-48, league-clinching win over Granite Hills.

EASTERN

After a 13-1 start, Crawford lost five of its next nine games, including 67-56 and 61-59 nonleague losses to Helix and La Jolla, and a 56-54 decision in a head-to-head meeting with St. Augustine.

Saints fans, who sold out their tiny Dougherty Gym the day before, let Crawford coach Jim Sams have it after the often brusque Sams had declared, “We’re better offensively and defensively.  They’ll have to score in the sixties to beat us.”

Crawford fell to 4-3 in league play after a 55-54 defeat at San Diego, where the Cavers’ Froebel Brigham drained a 30-footer with 13 seconds to play and Elburt Miller scored 29 points.

The Colts would not lose again, but their playoff hopes were at risk entering the final night of the regular season. St. Augustine was 8-1, Crawford, Hoover, and San Diego each 6-3.

CIF big shot Don Clarkson was on hand at Crawford to conduct a postgame telephonic vote among principals to determine the league’s second playoff representative.

Hoover knocked out San Diego, 52-45, and Crawford slammed St. Augustine, 89-59, marking the second loss in a week for the Saints, who stumbled against Hilltop, 48-38, three days earlier.

Crawford, which was 3-0 against Hoover, seemed a shoe-in but it was not until a meeting three days later and a second vote did the Colts get in.

Who won, the ratings or the seedings?  Since the seedings are based on the ratings and the ratings are based on the  Ocomputer, the question should be who won, the computer or the human eye?

So far, the computer is trailing the organ of sight, at least in this impromptu survey.

Writer John Maffei of The San Diego Union, employing the eyeball test, has selected the winner in 77.8 per cent of games each Friday during the  season since 2015.

Lead seeded teams, based on Max Preps ratings this season, have won 42 of the 60 games in the first two weeks of the San Diego Section playoffs, or 67.7 per cent.  A nice number, but….

Heading into this week’s  semifinals, there are 9 lower seeds (5 and above) still alive.

Higher seeded teams won 29 of 40 first-round games, 72.5 per cent, although there were a couple unexpected whoppers.

Fifteen seed University City upset Division IV No. 2 Rancho Buena Vista, 61-51, and 14 seed El Centro Central tripped No. 3 Bonita Vista, 55-54 in D-III.

The higher seeds won 13 of 20 second round games, 65 per cent, but there were more surprises.

No. 9 Francis Parker, coached by veteran Jim Tomey, who won a state championship at University High with Luke Walton, Nate Staggs, and others in 1998, ousted No. 1 Montgomery, 80-76, in D-III and No. 8 El Centro Southwest ushered out No. 1 Maranatha, 57-55, in D-IV.

Three fifth seeds, three sixes, and one seventh, eighth, and ninth, respectively, are in the hunt as the semifinals get under way Wednesday.

Boys Open and D-1 championships will be Saturday at Viejas Arena.  Divisions II, III, and IV will be at San Marcos High.  La Costa Canyon will host D-V.  All games Wednesday are scheduled to tip at 7 p.m.

Full disclosure:  Maffei admitted to not doing so well in the 2017 playoffs, tabbing around 50 per cent of the winners, but that included the Southern and state postseason, involving many teams the writer had not seen.

Semifinals pairings:

 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SEEDING

Since all eight Open Division teams automatically qualify for the Southern California regional playoffs, a seeding game was necessary for the quarterfinals losers, St. Augustine and San Marcos, which will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. at San Marcos.

The Saints were beaten, 85-55, by Foothills Christian, representing revenge for the Knights, who lost a playoff at St. Augustine, 72-69, in 2017.

Foothills stifled the Saints with a suffocating zone defense, which coach Mike Haupt’s team could not penetrate.  The Saints shot air balls and rim rattlers from three-point range.

The only similarity to the 2017 contest was the Knights’ propensity for technical fouls.  They had three in the 2017 game and two in the encore.

Who are these guys and girls?

Ninety-four of the 128 dues-paying members of the CIF San Diego Section fielded football teams in 2017, which leaves more than 30 to pursue other sports.  Many do, in the hoops game.

They perform in relative obscurity, their game results often not reported or appearing in the newspaper, but all were visible when the CIF announced pairings for 2017-18 basketball playoffs, which begin Tuesday.

Eighteen schools in the basketball postseason didn’t play football or don’t play for various reasons. Who they are probably begs the question:

Where are they?

Some interesting first-round matchups:

GIRLS OPEN

5 San Marcos (18-6) @4 Mission Hills (21-7).

BOYS OPEN

8 St. Augustine (17-6) @1 Foothills Christian (24-5). 6 Vista (22-7) @Mission Bay (24-5).

DIVISION I

12 Grossmont (15-12) @5 Orange Glen (16-12).

D-II

9 Francis Parker (10-12) @8 Serra (17-9).

D-III

10 Santana (17-11) @7 Brawley (18-9).

BIG TEAMS WAIT

Open Division teams have byes until Friday.  All eight, no matter their first-round outcomes, will advance into the Southern California regionals.

St. Augustine at Foothills Christian is by far the most compelling game of the first round.

The Saints saw 6-foot-8-inch Arizona Stare commit Taeshon Cherry transfer to Foothills days before the opening game.  After a slow start Cherry is averaging 22 points and 11 rebounds and the Knights are 24-5 and have won 16 in a row.

St. Augustine, with an all-underclass team, has cobbled together a 17-6 record and is a traditionally tough out come postseason.

The Saints, with Cherry, defeated Foothills Christian, 72-69, in a playoff barnburner last season, the conclusion of which  resulted in Foothills coach Brad Leaf’s receiving two technical fouls, was ejected with 1.9 seconds remaining in the game, and forced to sit out the Knights’ 66-65, Southern California playoff loss to Oak Park.

Leaf was T’d after he stormed across the floor of Dougherty Gym shouting that he had not asked for a time out.

Someone in the Foothills group called a timeout, but the Knights were out of time outs, resulting in the first technical.  Leaf received the second and third.

The Saints’ Otto Taylor made three of six technical attempts and the Saints won by three.

It was a fitting climax to the last game at Dougherty Gym, a historic bandbox of accelerated decibel levels and frenzied finishes that had served as the Saints’ home since 1951.  They moved into a beautiful new facility this season.

Union-Tribune last regular-season Boys’ poll through Monday, Feb. 19:

Others receiving votes: Canyon Crest (18-8, 5 points),  El Camino (15-12, 1.

Poll participants:  John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, freelancer; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions;  Adam Paul,  Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM; Christian Pedersen, S.D. Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, Fulltime Hoops; Brad Enright, L.A. Court Report.

The dog days of the season will suddenly become the stretch run Saturday, when pairings, fueled by the ratings system associated with Max Preps, will be announced by the San Diego Section.

Foothills Christian appears to have a lock on the regular-season Top 10 ratings, which will be announced next week.

The Knights, with St. Augustine transfer Taeshon Cherry averaging 22.6 points and 11.7 rebounds, will be shooting for the local top seed and, down the road, a berth in the state Open Division playoffs.

Foothills, No. 1 in San Diego, followed by Torrey Pines and Mission Bay, remained No. 9 and Mission Bay 12^th in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports rankings.  Torrey Pines finally got into the mix at No. 20.

La Jolla Country Day is 16^th in Cal-Hi’s Girls ratings.  Mount Miguel and Mission Hills are on the bubble.

I vote for Torrey Pines every week as No. 1.  The Falcons are hamstrung by a 69-68 loss to St. Augustine and 74-73 defeat to Brighton of Salt Lake City, Utah, in their Christmas tournament.

Torrey Pines coach John Olive, in his 21^st season of repeated success, missed both of the losses with a bout of the flu.  Olive’s club continues to dominate the Avocado League.

The Falcons beat Sage Creek, 65-40, on Valentine’s Day and have won their last 52 league games.  They finish the regular season Friday night against La Costa Canyon, a 69-50 loser to the Falcons in the first round.

Forfeits, ineligibles, nuptials.

Three words that sum up a season filled with hot shooting, high scores, and dramatic finishes but ended with flat, early exits for San Diego schools in their next-to-last year in the Southern Section playoffs.

–San Diego High, 23-2 on the floor, was 7-18 legislatively after forfeiting 16 victories because of an overage starting player.

CIF Southern Section rules stated that to be eligible to play an athlete could not turn 19 years of age before Sept. 1 of his senior year.  Forward Otha Phillips, a strong defender who had scored 140 points in 18 games, passed his 19^th birthday in May.

The CIF had lowered the eligibility rule from age 20 to 19 in 1939.

–There was no forfeit, but Hoover  lost starting forward Ron Crosby for several games  because of classroom grades (and starting center Harry Stadnyk for several games because of a knee injury).

St. Augustine (10-12) lost three Eastern League games and four overall because of the scholastic ineligibility of one player. Other players throughout the area were sidelined after unsuccessful stints with the books.

–Sweetwater’s Wayne Sevier, a three-sport star, quarterback of the Red Devils’ football team, and a starting forward for coach Wells Gorman’s basketball squad, was declared ineligible because he had gotten married and was forced to leave school.

–Lincoln was sidetracked when the question of reserve forward T.R. Lowery’s age surfaced two days before a first-round playoff.

DREADED ADMINISTRATIVE GLITCH

Otha Phillips’ overlooked birthdate represented one of the most egregious of all the bookkeeping and clerical errors that had historically short-circuited teams.

The reversal of 16 victories robbed San Diego High of a chance to compete in the playoffs in a season in which coach Dick Otterstad’s club had taken its place among the best in school history and had performed at a higher level than expected.

Cavers officials quickly owned up.

Vice-principal Bill Bailey was seen walking through a deserted parking lot south of the Spreckles Building on Tuesday morning, Jan. 27, 1959, heading toward the Union-Tribune building at 919 Second Avenue.

A bystander spotted Bailey and wondered why the VP of the high school would be visiting the newspaper office at that time of day on a school day.  Bailey soon demonstrated why, delivering the news to Evening Tribune high school beat writer Paul Cour.

“The ineligibility was brought to our attention by another school,” Bailey told Cour, declining to name the informant.  Bailey said failure to note Phillips’ ineligibility “was an oversight on our part.”

Principal Lawrence Carr apologized for the error in a statement released that morning and said Phillips’ “correct age has been listed on our eligibility sheets sent by us during the season to all of our opponents.”

No one noticed for 18 games.

Bailey said an eligibility report is filed with each school before a game is played.  Each report lists a player’s birthdate, birthplace, and academic standing, according to Bailey.

Phillips, a senior competing for the first year, did not realize that he was too old to compete, said Carr.

COACH GAGS

Otterstad was stunned and became ill when the word came down.  He excused himself from a coaches’ planning meeting at school and retreated to the men’s room.

The coach and his bosses appealed to CIF commissioner Ken Fagans, hoping San Diego could be a candidate for the playoffs as an at-large team.

If there was an opening in the 32-team playoff bracket, a  slim possibility, Fagans said he would give the Cavers consideration.

Five weeks later, after several telephone calls between Cavers officials and the CIF, the San Diego plea was denied by the Southern Section’s executive committee.

SHOWS CLASS

Otterstad said that he called the vice-principal of the school that reported the Philips glitch and, while expressing disappointment, held no rancor toward the rival.

The Cavers’ coach also revealed that he had been approached by Compton coach Bill Armstrong, whose Tarbabes would be Hoover’s opponent in the second round of the playoffs.

Armstrong wanted Otterstad to impart any knowledge acquired in San Diego’s two victories over the Cardinals.

“I told him that Hoover was in our league and that I wouldn’t do that,” Otterstad revealed to Jerry Magee of The San Diego Union.

BE WARY

City League coaches, though profiting from the Cavers’ malfeasance, sympathized.

“It’s an unfortunate thing for the boy himself and others on the squad,” said Lincoln’s Don Smith.  “We’re interested in the best team representing our league in the playoffs.”

Smith went on to say that coaches would be more attentive to “checking the eligibility lists in the future.”   A month later the Lincoln mentor was forced to deal with the possibility of T.R. Lowery’s being too old.

(Lincoln scrambled and found proof that Lowery was clear to play, but the Hornets, the hottest team in the City in the last month other than San Diego, never hit their stride in a 50-48 loss to Compton Centennial on the Hoover floor).

“That’s not the way we like to win games,” said Hoover’s Charlie Hampton.  “What a tough break for Dick. His ball club wasn’t expected to do much this year, but it came along and now this happens.”

Hilbert Crosthwaite of Point Loma  (10-11) noted that “last year Dick had another (tough break) when Chula Vista knocked his great ball club out of the playoffs.”

Paul Beck of Mission Bay (17-6) said, “I sure hate to see this happen but we’re back in the race and will be trying all the way.”

SCORING LEADERS

KIWANIS TOURNAMENT

San Diego’s Arthur (Hambone) Williams didn’t score in a 63-44 victory over Santa Monica, then had 24 in a 57-51, semifinals win over Lincoln and 28 (including 10 consecutive free throws) in the championship-game, 62-49 triumph over Beverly Hills.  The Cavers became the first team to win the title three times.

Only three outside clubs, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, entered the 12^th annual tournament, composed of two, 16-team brackets in Unlimited and Limited divisions. Escondido was in the Unlimited the first time and new schools University and Clairemont made their first appearances in the Limited.

San Diego’s victory signaled that the Cavers, despite losing their two highest scorers, Artist Gilbert and Edward Lee Johnson, from the 23-3 team of 1957-58, had reloaded instead of rebuilding.  Hambone Williams, one of the County’s all-time great players, would go on to a career in the NBA with the San Diego Rockets and Boston Celtics.

GET READY TO RUMBLE

Hoover, led by southpaw Wayne Britt’s 23 points, connected on 17 of 22 field goal attempts in the first half to lead, 37-18, and was 30×49 for 61 per cent for the game in an 80-64 win over a Mira Costa team that was 9-0,  a tournament favorite, and shot well enough, 25×53, 47 per cent, to win most games.

Mustangs coach Dean Sempert was so frustrated that, according to witnesses, encouraged his team to get tough with the lean, physically unimposing Cardinals. Hoover coach Charlie Hampton walked to the Mustangs’ bench in the second half and wondered when Sempert was going to “quit the roughhouse play.”

Hoover was knocked out in the semifinal round by Beverly Hills, 66-64, as the Normans qualified for the finals for the fourth time in five years.

CHINO

Chula Vista, a regular at this post-Christmas event, defeated Newhall Hart, 39-37, for the championship after building a 19-5 first-quarter lead.  The Spartans also topped Chino, 58-45, Placentia Valencia, 64-17, and Ontario Chaffey, 56-52.

Escondido (15-7) opened with a 61-37 victory over Desert as Steve Thurlow had 11 field goals and 22 points and brother Toby had 11 free throws and 21 points.  The Cougars also topped Upland, 67-50, but lost to Hart in the semifinals, 64-59, and to Chaffey, 80-69, in the third-place game.

Mar Vista  was beaten by Buena Park, 42-40, in the consolation finals.

BANNING

San Dieguito (15-9), which defeated Mar Vista, 36-30, for the Kiwanis Limited title, was beaten by host Banning, 34-29, in the finals of the Riverside county school’s tournament.  The Mustangs got to the finals by eliminating San Jacinto, 46-30, and Palm Springs, 47-41.

FILLMORE

Helix (12-11) had a short stay in Ventura County, bowing to the host Fillmore Flashes, 43-37, and to Santa Paula, 57-50.

SOUTH BAY BARNBURNER

Jerry Magee of The San Diego Union wrote:

“Chula Vista shaded Sweetwater, 41-38, in Chula Vista Recreation Center last night in a double-overtime Metro League basketball game that had more false finishes than a Pearl White* movie.

“A medium-range jump shot by Fred Olmsted with 1:01 remaining in the second extra session settled it before a turnaway crowd of some 1,600.  Officials said at least that many more were denied admission after the doors were locked an hour and a half before tipoff.”

Olmsted supplied the winning points, said Magee, but a reserve guard who did not score a point saved the Spartans from certain defeat.

Sweetwater led, 38-36, with four seconds left in the first overtime and had possession of the ball at midcourt, but “whippet-fast” Billy Ellis stole the inbounded ball and fired a perfect pass to Phil Lind, who scored the tying points from under the Sweetwater basket.

Chula Vista had taken a 34-32 lead on Bill Foley’s jump shot with a little more than a minute to play in the fourth quarter, but the Red Devils’ George Spicer forced the overtime when he drained a long jumper from behind the foul circle.

Olmsted, whose free throw with one second to play delivered a 51-50 victory over Mount Miguel in another league game, was on the floor because starter Richard Baumann, an all-Metro guard in 1957-58, was out for the season with an injury sustained in a wood shop class.

Magee wrote that the second half was played to the “accompaniment of near pandemonium.”

Perhaps because of the din inside the municipal facility, the Spartans attempted only seven second-half field goals and made five. They were 17×31, 55 per cent for a game. Sweetwater, led by Milton Horton’s 15 points, made 16×45 for 36 per cent.

(*Pearl White was a silent films actress and starred in “The Perils of Pauline”).

THE BEST?

Grossmont (11-12) coach Locke Olson declared his 6-foot, 5-inch center and hook shot specialist Jerry Halterman “the best college prospect in the area.”

Halterman scored 33 points in a 51-41 loss to Hoover, 33 in a double-overtime, 53-51 defeat by Sweetwater, 35 against the Cardinals in a 66-57 Kiwanis Tournament setback, and 35  against Chula Vista.  Halterman was the County’s leading scorer with  587 points in 23 games and averaged 25.5.

Southern Prep League statistics were not available, but Army-Navy Coach Richard Gronquist reported that star Jack McAboy averaged 21.5 points.

HORNETS STING

Lincoln had lost five out of six to Hoover, including by scores of 51-50, 48-47 in overtime, and 42-41 (after leading by 11 points at the start of the fourth quarter), and 53-50, this season.  The latter was for third place in the Kiwanis.

The Hornets took out their frustration in the second round of City Prep League play, running the minus-two-starters Hoover off its home court, shooting 59 per cent and winning, 69-47.

The victory, combined with San Diego’s forfeits, allowed Lincoln to tie the Cardinals, each with a 13-3 record, and claim a share of their first title.  Lincoln, however, couldn’t get past San Diego, losing twice with leads late in the fourth quarter,

Unsung, young (just turned 17) senior Forrest (Big Child) Glithero, a nonletterman transfer from Mission Bay, scored 21 points and had 18 rebounds and Lincoln led the Cavers, 57-49 with 4:30 remaining.  San Diego scored 12 of the last 13 points and blanked the Hornets for the last 3:48 and won, 61-58.

The rematch, an all-time thriller on the Cavers’ floor,  saw Lincoln, shooting 56 per cent, take a 70-69 on Russ Cravens’ basket and free throw with 1:29 remaining.

Hornet Pete Colonelli missed a medium-range jumper with 30 seconds left.  As Colonelli shot, San Diego’s Hambone Williams, who scored 24 points, sneaked behind the Hornets, took a half-court pass and scored for a 71-70 victory.

After the game, Williams suggested that writer Paul Cour “tell ‘em Hambone did it!”

HELIX LOSES TRACK

The Highlanders must have been in the twilight zone, coincidentally a television show of the same name that was making its network debut in 1959.  First guard Wally Hartwell and then center Don Weist attempted field goals…at the Chula Vista basket.

Weist’s shot, during a scramble under the backboard, went in.  The wrong-way hoop didn’t have an effect on the game.  Chula Vista won, 47-37.

HAVE MERCY

Had Coach Dick Otterstad not virtually emptied his bench and played everyone, San Diego High might have scored 125 points against hapless Crawford.  Instead the Hilltoppers set a school-record point total in a 96-37 win that was shared by 10 players.

Arthur (Hambone) Williams led the Cavers with 23 points.  Others contributing were Ezell Singleton (15), Otha Phillips (13), Ben Pargo (11), Richard Flanery (10), Ernest (Moe) Watson (10), Allan Zukor (6), Willie Bolton (4), and Jack Henn and Morris Russ, 2 each.

POSTSEASON

Hoover (20-7) topped Chula Vista (19-7), 56-46, and then was beaten at Compton, 86-47. Compton reached the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Glendale, 69-46.  Centennial, which beat Lincoln (17-6), 50-48, also reached the semifinals, losing to Fullerton, 47-46, and then defeated Compton in the third place game, 46-44.

Fullerton eliminated Sweetwater (14-5), 69-49, and lost in the championship to Glendale, 59-49.  Army-Navy of the Southern Prep League lost at Big Bear City Big Bear, 48-42, despite 22 points by Jack McAboy. First-year Clairemont, 6-6 in nonleague play, defeated Mar Vista (18-9), 46-39, but lost to Buena Park, 57-34.

Ramona won its first-round game in the 1-A playoffs for smallest schools, defeating Cerritos Valley Christian, 52-39, before losing to Oxnard Santa Clara, 52-48.  Santa Clara topped Trona, 44-27, for the championship.

JUMP SHOTS

Unhappy with the way things were going, someone at Kearny High hung coach Jim Sams in effigy in the school gymnasium…Sams, 20-34 in two seasons, exited at the end of the school year and moved to Crawford…few teams have shot with such accuracy as Sweetwater, which converted 30 of 43 shots from the field for 70 per cent and made 15 of 17 free throw attempts in a 75-64 win over Escondido…Hoover outscored San Diego, 26-8, from the free throw line but the Cavers had a 58-36 advantage from the field in a 66-62 victory in the first round of City Prep League play…the Cardinals were 26×32 for 81 per cent from the stripe, while San Diego was 8×15 for 53 per cent…Lincoln set a school scoring record in a 81-32 victory over La Jolla, breaking the record set earlier in the season in a 71-41 win over Coronado…not to be outdone, Hoover bettered its record in a  89-48 win over St. Augustine…Point Loma, 0-5 in nonleague games and only 10-11 overall, took San Diego to the wire…Otha Phillips’ basket with :15 remaining got the Cavers past the Pointers, 39-38…a basket and free throw by Phillips and Ezell Singleton’s late set shot allowed the Cavers to edge St. Augustine, 51-49, after they trailed, 49-46, with two minutes to play…the Cavers won an earlier meeting with the 10-12 Saints, 69-18…Glendale schools came South in a break from tradition to play San Diego and Hoover…Glendale High defeated San Diego, 63-51, and Hoover, 61-59…Glendale Hoover topped Hoover, 56-53, but lost to San Diego, 51-46…the San Diego schools had made the trip North for years to play various Los Angeles-area schools…the city exercised its annual December dominance over County teams, San Diego defeating Helix, 59-49, and Hoover topping Grossmont, 61-50, at Grossmont…the Cavers nudged Grossmont, 59-46, and Hoover beat Helix, 51-41 the next night…Grossmont lost six Metropolitan League games by a total of 18 points, including two in overtime to Sweetwater, 53-51, and 40-39, and one to Escondido, 64-56…San Diego led at Long Beach Poly, 52-45, entering the fourth quarter but lost, 70-60…the Cavers could not complain about being the visiting team and getting the shaft from game officials…host Poly was whistled for 21 fouls, the Cavers 11….