Tustin Basketball Team Gets a 6-foot-8 Gift Named Moll

Jeff Moll walked into the gym at Tustin High about a week ago and made Coach Andy Ground’s day.

A recent transfer student who played basketball at San Bernardino Cajon High, Moll is 6 feet 8.

Ground stuck a basketball in his hand and told him to shoot around. When Moll was done, he was holding a Tiller uniform.

“We only had him out there for an hour,” Ground said. “He looked like he can help us.”

If second-ranked Tustin had a shortcoming, it might have been in the post area, now that 6-7 senior standout David Lalazarian is playing more on the perimeter.

“We need interior play and post defense and [Moll] looks like he can give that to us,” Ground said.

Moll, a junior, scored four points in his Tiller debut, a 80-60 Tustin victory over Santa Ana. He had four points in Friday’s 65-52 victory over Saddleback.

*

Woodbridge’s girls’ basketball victories Friday and Saturday over Fairfield, ranked No. 2 in the state Division I rankings, and Grass Valley (Nev.) Union were impressive because the county’s second-ranked team won without Krissy Duperron (12.5 points, 70% from the field).

The junior forward has been sidelined since Dec. 30 because of a partially torn cartilage in her right knee. A team doctor recommended that Duperron undergo arthroscopic surgery this week; a 10- to 14-day recovery would enable her to return for the playoffs. But a doctor with the family’s HMO advised her Monday that Duperron should let the knee rest and heal on its own, and if it doesn’t, then they’ll have the minor surgery.

Complicating matters, according to Krissy’s mother, Donna, is that the earliest surgery date available is Feb. 18. Although Woodbridge should breeze through the Division II-AA playoffs, the Warriors might need Duperron for the tougher Southern California Regional Division II playoffs, which conclude 12 days later, March 2.

“This is a hard one on the parents,” Donna Duperron said. “I can see both doctors’ points of view, but it’s tough when it’s your daughter and she loves the game of basketball so much.”

*

As if the Magnolia girls’ basketball team needed more scary news before its game tonight against fourth-ranked Brea Olinda. The Sentinels (12-6, 4-0) are tied with Brea Olinda (15-3, 4-0) for first place in the Orange League, but the Ladycats are coming off a 53-45 loss to top-ranked Mater Dei.

“Believe it or not,” Magnolia Coach Doug Romeo said, “this is the third year in a row that they have lost to a perennial power on Saturday and then played us on Tuesday, so they are always in a bad mood when they play us.”

*

Shontell Sherwood, part of the Costa Mesa girls’ basketball program when the Mustangs went to the 1993 state championship game, will finish out the year as the Mustangs’ interim coach. She was an assistant to Len Whitacre, who resigned last week.

* Staff writers Martin Beck and Martin Henderson contributed to this story.