Louisville Girls Chart Course to 3-A Playoffs

For the Louisville High girls basketball team, the road to Pomona includes a stop in Encino.

The Woodland Hills team must stop at the Crespi High gym Saturday night for the opening round of the Southern Section’s 3-A playoffs. The championship games in the 3-A and 4-A divisions will be held at Cal Poly Pomona on March 7.

The Royals (22-4) play Burroughs of Ridgecrest at 7:30 p.m. Saturday’s playoff game, originally scheduled at Louisville, was moved to Crespi because the Louisville gym lacked adequate seating.

Louisville enters the playoffs seeded third in the division, behind Brea-Olinda and Foothill. The Royals, who won the San Fernando Valley League with a 14-0 record, face a Burroughs team that finished tied for second in the Golden League with Antelope Valley.

Burroughs (14-7, 7-3) is playing its best basketball of the season, according to its coach, Jack Clark.

“We’ve won four in a row,” Clark said. “We’ve got everybody healthy and we’ve had three excellent practices this week. We are confident.”

Burroughs will be aided by the return of center Grenoris Hearon, who has missed the last nine games because of an ankle injury. Hearon, a 6-1 sophomore, was averaging 10 points at the time of her injury.

Clark knows his team will have its hands full with Louisville’s Andrea Knapp, a 6-2 junior center, who is averaging 23 points a game. Knapp, along with Marianella Cruz and Lynn Flanagan, has led Louisville to 18 straight wins.

“Andrea is an excellent player,” Clark said. “The deceptive part of her game is her outside shooting. You can’t lay off her because she’ll hit from the perimeter. She’s also excellent at posting up.”

The girls City playoffs begin today, but the top-seeded team, Kennedy, won’t see action until Wednesday. The Golden Cougars (18-2) had their game against Carson canceled by the City’s athletic office, which determined that the game would be too one-sided. Carson was 0-10 in the Marine League.

Kennedy Coach Craig Raub was disappointed with the decision, but said “you’ve got to go with what they say. They’re the chiefs.”

Kennedy, which won the Valley 4-A League with a 10-0 record, will play the winner of today’s Fremont-El Camino Real game at home Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

“The rationale for the decision is there,” Raub said, “but the same rationale is not being used throughout the whole system. For instance, the El Camino Real football team, which won one game, had to play Carson in the first round of the playoffs.”

Raub was also hoping to have a game so that junior center Diane DeCree could see some game action. DeCree suffered a bruised bladder in a game against El Camino Real on Feb. 5. She hasn’t played since.

El Camino Real’s home game with Fremont will start at 5 p.m. Chatsworth’s game at Crenshaw will start at 5:30 p.m. Two other Valley teams are involved in the 4-A playoffs: Cleveland playing at Banning and Van Nuys playing at home against Jordan. Both games start at 7:30 p.m.

In the 3-A Division, Reseda plays Hamilton at Garfield High at 7:30 p.m. Other 7:30 action has Eagle Rock at San Fernando and Birmingham at Hollywood. In 5:30 games, Palisades is at North Hollywood and Monroe plays San Pedro at Narbonne High.