Vaughan Earns 350th Victory, but Buena Coach Wants a Title

With a 72-37 win over Pasadena on Friday, Buena High girls’ basketball team gave its Coach Joe Vaughan his 350th coaching victory.

But Vaughan, who turned 46 years old Wednesday, remained his soft-spoken self when he recalled his milestone victory.

“I’d rather win the Southern Section title than my 350th game,” said Vaughan, whose team played Orange on Wednesday night. “It’s a nice accomplishment.

“We’ve never had a blue-chipper, just a lot of hard-working players. And they made it happen.”

In 15 seasons as coach, Vaughan has guided the Bulldogs to 12 Channel League titles, 10 appearances in the semifinals, five in the semifinals and two Southern Section titles. In the state playoffs, Buena has won two regionals and two state titles.

Basketball pairings announced: The Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark college men’s basketball teams each earned berths in the Southern California Regional of the state junior college tournament, which begins this weekend.

Ventura (25-9), the Northern Division champion of the Western State Conference, is the eighth seed and will host Palmar (11-18), the No. 25 seed, in first-round action Saturday night. Palmar competes in the Pacific Coast Conference.

Oxnard (16-14) is an at-large entrant from the WSC and the No. 15 seed. It will host Mt. San Jacinto (20-12) of the Foothill Conference, the No. 18 seed, Saturday night.

Moorpark (21-10) was second in the Northern Division, and is the 13th-seeded team in the 27-team regionals. The men will be at home for a first-round game against Orange Coast (14-13) on Saturday.

The Raiders are coming off a 104-89 loss to Ventura in the regular season finale, but point guard Sam Crawford scored a school-record 49 points.

The second round of the regionals will be held Wednesday. The final eight teams will advance to the state tournament, March 8-10 at UC Irvine.

Ventura won the Northern Division last year, and lost to Cerritos in the regional finals.

Tournament-bound: The Moorpark and Ventura college women’s basketball teams began play in the state tournament Wednesday. The Lady Raiders (20-9) won the WSC Northern Division for the third consecutive season and traveled to El Camino (21-7) in the first round of the 16-team Southern California Regional. Ventura (23-9), the 11th-seeded team, traveled to Orange Coast (21-5).

Fine career: The early departure of Buena also signals the end of Jeff Oliver’s impressive high school career.

In three years, the senior guard set school records for most points in a game (52 against Loyola), most points in a season (757), most points in a career (1,595), most three-pointers in a season (118) and most three-pointers in a career (268).

Oliver also helped Buena set school team marks for most points in a game (120) and highest point average (80.2).

Oliver has signed to play for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next season.

Pauley honors Silky: Jamaal Wilkes, who played for Ventura and Santa Barbara in high school, was honored Sunday as a member of UCLA’s 1971-72 NCAA championship team.

The Bruins went 30-0 that season and won their sixth consecutive title and eighth overall under legendary coach John Wooden. Wilkes, a sophomore forward, started alongside junior Larry Farmer, sophomore center Bill Walton, and senior guard Henry Bibby and sophomore Greg Lee.

Wilkes, formerly known as Keith Wilkes in high school and college, continued his career with the Golden State Warriors where he was selected Rookie of the Year in 1974-75 and the Los Angeles Lakers.

In high school, Wilkes, nicknamed Silk, played his junior year at Ventura before transfering to Santa Barbara.

Although his teams failed to reach the finals, Wilkes was selected the Southern Section (Major Division) Player of the Year in 1970.

Anticipation: The name Lisa Leslie would strike fear into most opposing high school girls’ basketball coaches. After all, the 6-foot-5 Morningside senior scored 101 points in one half two weeks ago.

But Channel Islands Coach Ryle Lynch-Cole wanted the opportunity to play Morningside, the defending Southern Section Division 5-AA champion and see how the Raiders’ 6-0 junior center Sal Tauau matches up against Leslie.

“It’s been one of our goals all season to play Morningside,” Lynch-Cole said. “We wanted Sal to get a shot at playing against her before (Leslie) graduates.”

And with a 44-42 win over Alhambra on Saturday night in a second round playoff game, Lynch-Cole had his wish fulfilled. Channel Islands played top-seeded Morningside in a 5-AA quarterfinal game at Channel Islands Wednesday night.

Add Channel Islands: When leading scorers Candis Carper and Tauau sat out the second quarter in foul trouble in its win against Alhambra, Lynch-Cole went to his bench to find another shooter.

“It was a total team effort,” Lynch-Cole said. “We needed our bench and they came through.”

Sophomore Virgie Juarez, a 5-7 guard promoted from the junior varsity, scored nine points, including two three-pointers.

St. Bonaventure’s misfortunes: St. Bonaventure played without 6-5 center Frank Huber (flu) and point guard Kevin Zoll (knee injury) and lost last week to Paraclete, 66-59, in the 2-A Division playoffs, a team it had earlier defeated.

“The season ended pretty much the way it started,” Coach Marc Groff said. “We had too many players on the sidelines than in the game and not enough depth to counter balance it.”

Tired of being stepped on: Santa Paula reached two goals this season under first-year Coach Chuck Yuncker. The Cardinals (3-20) won a Frontier League game for the first time in four years and finished out of the cellar for the first time in seven years.

“We have a good crop of kids coming up that will be juniors,” Yuncker said. “People will no longer be able to come here and walk all over us.”