It Was Capital Punishment for Opponents of Peninsula Girls

Even without one of its top players, the Peninsula High girls’ basketball team had the look of a champion last weekend.

“Defensively we were great,” said Panther Coach Wendell Yoshida, whose team opened the season by easily winning the championship of the eight-team Capital City Shootout at Sacramento State University. “When we put all the pieces together, it’s scary how good we could be.”

Playing without starting forward Monique Morehouse, who did not make the trip to catch up on her studies, Peninsula won three games by margins of 52, 28 and 24 points against a field of Northern California schools.

The performance solidified the Panthers’ standing as one of the best teams in the nation. They were ranked No. 1 by Street & Smith magazine and No. 3 by USA Today in preseason polls.

“The games were a lot tougher than the scores indicated, except for maybe the first one,” Yoshida said. “It was tough competition.”

The competition should get tougher Saturday night when Peninsula travels to meet Washington in a 7:30 nonleague game. Washington is rated No. 2 in the state behind Peninsula by Cal-Hi Sports and No. 24 nationally by USA Today.

The defending City Section 4-A Division champions have an impressive front line of 5-foot-11 preseason All-American Charisse Sampson, 5-11 Keshana Ledat and 5-10 Shakisha Chambers.

Peninsula counters with the 6-3 Morehouse and 6-5 center Jeffra Gausepohl, who was named most valuable player of the Capital City Shootout. Gausepohl scored 27 points, had 16 rebounds and four blocked shots in the Panthers’ 67-44 victory over Del Campo of Fair Oaks in the tournament final Saturday.

“This was a great tournament for (Gausepohl) confidence-wise,” Yoshida said. “She picked up the slack for us with Monique not there.”

Three other Panthers earned all-tournament honors--sophomore forward Mimi McKinney, who had 19 points and three steals in the final; off-guard Raquel Alotis, who guarded Del Campo’s leading scorer and held her 16 points below her average, and point guard Kristen Mulligan, who played steady throughout the tournament.

Jill Kennedy, a 5-6 junior, replaced Morehouse in the starting lineup.

Yoshida said he was most pleased with his team’s defensive play.

“I don’t know how many turnovers we forced, but I don’t think we gave up any layups in the whole tournament,” he said. “Our pressure was relentless. This is the best defensive team I’ve ever had as far as tenacity and getting after it.”

Othon Herrera, a former high school coach from the Whittier area and a self-described student of the game, has been named baseball coach at South Torrance.

Herrera replaces Bob Grant, who resigned after last season to become an assistant at El Camino College.

Herrera, 27, is a graduate of La Serna High in Whittier and coached the Whittier High varsity team for two seasons in 1986 and ’87. After guiding a Whittier-area Connie Mack team to the Continental World Series in the summer of 1987, Herrera became a director of casino marketing for Sahara Resorts in Las Vegas.

Having returned to Southern California to start his own business, Herrera is anxious to coach baseball again.

“I like the potential and the possibilities at South High, not only for athletes but for student athletes,” he said. “My main concern is for the well-being of the kids.”

Herrera said he was not upset to learn that several parents and boosters were unhappy that he was hired over Cliff Malsi, South’s junior varsity coach. Three parents went before the Torrance school board Monday night to complain about the school’s hiring.

“It tells me that people care,” he said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with me. I think they thought somebody else was going to be hired. They were somehow misinformed. But it’s not a big deal with me.”

South Athletic Director Roger Bryant said the school would attempt to have Malsi continue coaching baseball in some capacity.

We thought it would be interesting to look back at our preseason top 10 in football to see how our predictions compared to this week’s South Bay ratings. As you can see, the early picks were hit and miss:

1. Banning. The Pilots have made us look good. They have held the top spot all season and Saturday will play in their first City championship game since 1986.

2. Carson. We predicted the Colts were ready to reload, but it turned out to be a rebuilding season for an inexperienced team with new head coaches.

3. Peninsula. The first-year school had a good season, but not this good.

4. Hawthorne. We were on the mark with the Cougars, who won the Bay League title and reached the Southern Section quarterfinals.

5. Serra. Although others thought the Cavaliers’ reign was over, we held firm they would enjoy another winning season. We were right.

6. Torrance. Despite a record-breaking season by quarterback Jason Kendall, the pieces never quite fell in place for the Tartars.

7. Morningside. We always have a tendency to underestimate the abilities of Monarch Coach Ron Tatum, who has his school in a Southern Section title game for the first time since 1966.

8. Leuzinger. Although we ranked the Olympians in the top 10, we warned the team would miss longtime Coach Steve Carnes. Under Tom Jessee, Leuzinger had a below-average season and reportedly suffered from internal problems.

9. South Torrance. The Spartans, who shared the Pioneer League title, were a top-10 team most of the season.

10. Mira Costa. The Mustangs had some impressive victories (Redondo and Bishop Montgomery), but close losses and injuries kept them under .500.

Recruiting news: Carson running back/receiver Theron Hill has visited Fresno State and Oregon and has trips planned to California, Nebraska or Colorado and Washington in the coming weeks.

Redondo offensive lineman Ryan Turner visited Stanford last weekend.

Notes

Jennifer Halladay, a junior goalkeeper for the Torrance girls’ soccer team, has been selected to the California state select team for the third time. The select team is part of the U.S. Olympic Development program and affords young athletes the opportunity to compete in tournaments and earn spots on the West Regional and National teams. Halladay had 21 shutouts last season to help Torrance (27-1-1) win the Southern Section 3-A Division title. A two-time All-Pioneer League selection, Halladay has 37 shutouts in two years on the varsity. . . . Torrance is ranked No. 1 and South Torrance is No. 2 in the preseason 3-A Division girls’ soccer poll. In other divisions, Peninsula is ranked No. 10 in 4-A and El Segundo is ranked No. 2 in 1-A.

South Bay’s Football Top 10 Selected by Times Sportswriters

Rank School, League Record 1 Banning (Pacific) 12-1 2 Morningside (Ocean) 10-2 3 Hawthorne (Bay) 9-3 4 Serra (Camino Real) 8-3 5 Carson (Pacific) 6-5-1 6 San Pedro (Southern) 8-5 7 Redondo (Ocean) 7-5 8 Peninsula (Bay) 7-4 9 El Segundo (San Fernando Vly) 8-3 10 South Torrance (Pioneer) 6-5