Southern California Regional Prep Basketball Tournament : Banning Could Deliver on Last Year’s Promise

It has been a year of births and rebirths for the Banning High School basketball team.

On Jan. 1, Coach Stan Smith became a father, and that was only the start.

“We had just won the Raincross tournament and our own tournament and someone said, ‘This looks like the start of a good year for you,’ ” Smith said. “I said, ‘I don’t now if it can get any better than this.’ But it just keeps going.”

All the way to the Southern Section 2-A championship last Saturday, over the same Irvine Woodbridge team that had handed the Broncos a heartbreaking overtime loss in the 1987 title game. They came back from that, and now an undefeated season and the Division IV crown in the Reebok State tournament are within reach.

As the top-seeded team in the Southern California Regional, Banning (31-0) is the favorite to advance to College of the Canyons to meet the Northern California representative March 19. The Broncos are two steps away. They will play a 7:30 home game tonight against Bakersfield Garces, which beat Bell-Jeff of Burbank in a first-round game Tuesday. If they win, they will play in the regional final Saturday at Cerritos College.

“I never thought we’d be undefeated,” said Smith, who has a 96-15 record in his four years at Banning. “There was more pressure on us during regular-season play. To go 24-0 with the competition we faced in the tournaments and the nonleague and our own league was a great accomplishment.”

But winning the Sunkist League title was hardly a surprise. The Broncos have only done it 12 straight seasons, with 75 consecutive league wins in the process.

Five of the top six players returned from the 1986-87 team, including All-Southern Section pick Dennis Gray and second-team selection Tony Hannibal. With Andre Stringer, David Efferson and Chris Familetti joining Gray and Hannibal in the starting lineup, this is a team of quickness, one that would just as soon win 100-99 as 50-40.

“The kids like to run,” Smith said. “We don’t necessarily have a great offense or a great defense, but we are great on conditioning. The key word is athletes. We put them on the court, let ‘em go and see if anybody can beat us.”

So far so good.

A Division I doubleheader at Cal State Dominguez Hills highlights action tonight.

At 6:30, Southern Section 4-A runner-up Lynwood meets City 4-A champion Westchester in a matchup of two of the best girls’ teams in the state. Lynwood defeated Westchester in the Morningside tournament in December, one of the Comets’ two losses.

At 8:30, the Crenshaw boys’ team, the City 4-A titlist, faces Hoover of Fresno, the Central Section champion coming off a win over Mater Dei of Santa Ana in Tuesday’s first round.

The other Division I boys’ game is also an attractive matchup. It will be the quickness and defense of Los Angeles Manual Arts against the inside strength and cool-headed guards of Simi Valley. The game is at 7:30 at Simi Valley.

One of the Division II girls’ semifinals will pit Los Altos of Hacienda Heights against Palos Verdes in a rematch of the Southern Section 3-A title game, won by Palos Verdes.

Prep Notes

For the fifth straight year, radio station KDAY (1580) will broadcast the boys’ Division I final from the Sports Arena. The game is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. Saturday. Jamaal Wilkes and Pete Arbogast will be the announcers. . . . Simi Valley center Don MacLean took three aspirins before Tuesday’s game against Santee Santana of the San Diego Section to lessen the pain in his tender left ankle, and he came out several times for rests. His pains have been playoff-long, both in the ankle and in his statistics. Before making 8 of 12 shots from the field against Santana, he had been shooting 44.2% since the end of the regular season, including a combined 38.5% in the Southern Section semifinal against Santa Ana, 8 of 19, and the title game against Capistrano Valley of Mission Viejo, 7 of 20.

Teachers at Kennedy of La Palma are already replaying the basketball team’s Southern Section 3-A semifinal thriller against Rolling Hills March 1, when the Fighting Irish trailed by 23 points midway through the third quarter but came back to win in triple overtime, 83-80. “They are showing the film to the kids to teach them never to give up,” Coach John Mayberry said. “Funny thing, the teacher spearheading the thing had to apologize to the team. He went home at halftime.” . . . Loyola of Los Angeles, which won three straight Southern Section 3-A volleyball titles, has moved up to the 4-A as part of the Del Rey League. But will the jump make a difference? The Cubs are No. 1 in the coaches’ preseason rankings, with Newport Harbor, the defending champion, No. 2. Arcadia, which is expected to take control of the Central League after Loyola’s departure, is atop the 3-A. In a very good early-season matchup, Loyola will play at Palisades Tuesday at 3 p.m.