Hart’s Ms. Inside and Ms. Outside : Girls’ basketball: Wilson, Dionne have contrasting--and explosive--styles.

Sara Wilson and Anjanette Dionne are a match made in, well, the Hart High gymnasium.

Where else would one expect to find such a contradictory, yet highly talented, pair of basketball players?

Well, possibly someday in Oregon. But more on that later.

“Two girls like this don’t come along too often,” Hart Coach Dave Munroe said. “If you could have two types of players to start a team with, what would you ask for? A good point guard who can shoot and a post player. You’ve got your inside game and your outside game.”

With contrasting styles and personalities, Wilson, a 6-foot-3 senior center, and Dionne, a 5-7 1/2 sophomore point guard, have honed their individual talents while leading the Indians to a second consecutive Foothill League title and a 24-4 overall record.

The payoff comes at 6:45 tonight when Hart plays Buena (26-0) for the Southern Section 5-A Division championship at UC Irvine.

A victory, and the blond duo will have something in common--back-to-back Southern Section championships.

Said Dionne: “The big thing about Sara is that we feel more comfortable with her out there. Everybody looks up to her. Just the experience and stuff.”

Said Wilson: “She runs the court out there. She’s our leader. On the fast break, I know if she’s dribbling the ball, she’s gonna get you the ball.”

Off the court, Wilson is shy and reluctant to elaborate on her ability. She dishes off to Dionne. “She talks more than me,” Wilson said.

The outgoing Dionne, once an admitted tomboy, needs little coaxing to comment.

“My jumper has improved,” she said. “I don’t think last year I even had a jumper. My three-point shot has improved, I just think because the more I shoot it, the better it gets. That’s the big factor.”

Dionne, an adroit dribbler, fires a long-distance jump shot with remarkable accuracy, including a three-point shot that would have most high school players--boy or girl--collecting letters rapidly in a game of H-O-R-S-E.

Wilson, with exceptional agility, dominates opponents inside.

“They complement each other so well because they’re both unselfish players,” Munroe said. “When A. J. runs the floor, Sara is a big target. We’ve also got plays designed to get the ball out to Anjanette, and Sara knows where she is all the time.”

Dionne, who is averaging a team-high 23 points and six assists a game, scored a school-record 41 points against Alhambra, 35 against Glendale, 30 against Thousand Oaks and 27 in three consecutive league games.

Dionne has made 46 of 120 (38%) three-point shots, including 18 of 34 (53%) in league play. Overall, Dionne has shot 58% (92 of 160) from the field. “She’s the only one we let shoot the three-pointer,” Munroe said.

Wilson, last season’s Times Valley Player of the Year, was held to a season-low 10 points in last week’s 50-43 quarterfinal win over Capistrano Valley. Three nights later, she scored a career-high 31 in a 56-51 win over Rubidoux. She is averaging 19 points and 12 rebounds.

“How many programs have a Division I player?” Munroe said. “How many have a player that’s going to go on and play college, period? There are not a lot. And these two are blue-chippers.”

Wilson, averaging 19 points a game, has signed a national letter of intent to attend Oregon. And although Dionne is still two seasons away from graduation, eyes already are widening in Division I.

“The USC coaches were at the last game,” Munroe said. “The assistant at Arizona was there. And they’re not there watching Sara; she’s committed. Who are they watching?”

Dionne undoubtedly will attract the interest of Oregon recruiters too. And they won’t have far to travel.

Dionne, whose father owns a 600-acre ranch in Oregon, said she probably will move with her family to its native Brownsville after her junior year at Hart. Dionne then would play her senior season 25 miles north of Eugene--just a three-point shot from the home of the Ducks.

Wilson and Dionne, Pacific 10 Conference teammates?

“It sounds great,” Wilson said. “But I look at the fact that she’s going to have more than one college looking at her and she’s going to have a lot of options available to her in my opinion.”

Dionne admits that the thought of playing alongside her teammate in college has crossed her mind. “If I go there, Sara will be there and I’ll play with her. I think that will be really fun. But I really don’t want to tie myself down to any college right now. I haven’t gone to any campuses and I want to go to the visits and explore a little.”

There seems little doubt about Dionne’s status as Division I material. Opponents already have combated Hart with “funky defenses,” Munroe said, designed specifically to stop Dionne.

Munroe had anticipated such measures this season when he replaced Pam Walker, now an assistant at UCLA. Not wanting to restructure a successful program, Munroe instead focused on Dionne and Wilson.

“It was a challenge for me to see if I could bring their game up to another level, to see how much Anjanette and Sara could improve their game--along with the other girls. They’ve worked on the parts of their games that need improvement,” he said.

Under Munroe’s tutelage Dionne, a reserve last season, honed her pull-up jump shot. Wilson, a four-year varsity player, has broken a habit of playing exclusively with her back to the basket and has developed an outside jump shot.

And improvisation has been a big adaptation for both players.

“If they’re packing in on me down low,” Wilson said, “we have outside threats and our three-point shot, A. J.”

The road to the final, however, has been more difficult this season than last. Five key players graduated from a team that posted a 25-2 record and a semifinal win over Buena before defeating Santa Barbara for the championship.

In December, Wilson missed four games because of a staph infection. A week after her return, Hart lost to Buena, 48-30, in the semifinals of the Simi Valley tournament.

“We had a lot more talent, individually, last year,” Dionne said. “It seems like this year’s team has had to work a lot harder in the beginning to build up. But all the girls help out in their own way. I can’t say that we play two people against five.”