Southern Section Boys’ 4-A : Glendale, With 52 in Row, Seeks Title

What a feeling it must be for Glendale High not to have lost a boys’ basketball game since Feb. 21, 1984. That span includes tournaments, Pacific League play, playoffs and summer league, where the Dynamiters went 25-0 and beat Mater Dei, Cleveland and Long Beach Poly.

The winning streak is at 52 heading into tonight’s Southern Section 4-A championship game against Dominguez at the Long Beach Arena at 7, but the Dynamiters are not exactly blowing people off the court. The previous three games have produced victories by scores of 61-56, 58-55 and 49-44, the latter over Lynwood in the semifinals.

But Coach Steve Keith is good at putting things into perspective. He said Wednesday, after watching Lynwood whittle Glendale’s 12-point lead to four midway through the fourth quarter: “This ain’t no beauty contest.”

Getting to the final isn’t much of a shock either, he said.

“Our expectations since the beginning of the year were that we would be there,” he said. “We’re not getting too giddy over this. I don’t think we are real surprised that we made it.”

Dominguez (23-4) has two 5-10 guards and one of them, Rod Palmer, is the Dons’ second-leading scorer this season behind 6-5 forward Curtis Williams, who was averaging 13 points a game before Thursday. They will, however, be without forward Michael Moore, their No. 3 scorer, who broke his ankle in that game.

Dominguez has several impressive wins to its credit, having beat City Section quarterfinalist Cleveland, Southern Section 2-A finalist Santa Clara, and 5-A semifinalist Long Beach Poly. Three of Dominguez’s losses were to 5-A finalist Ocean View, Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore (the nation’s No. 25-ranked team, according to USA Today), and Lynwood in San Gabriel Valley League play.

Glendale (27-0) has a front line of 6-8 Jan Svoboda, 6-7 Bob Mulcahey and 6-5 Fred Bickett, but its best player is only 6-2 and 155 pounds--Rich Grande, who took a 20.8-point average into the playoffs.