Area News

INLAND EMPIRE

Riverside North has been asked by Southern Section officials to respond to charges that boys’ basketball Coach Mike Bartee recruited former player Dwight Slaughter. Slaughter, a junior guard recently kicked off of the team, said he was lured from Verbum Dei to North at the urging of Bartee. . . . Veronica Campa of the Cathedral City girls’ basketball team has been invited to play in the San Bernardino and Riverside counties’ senior varsity all-star game at El Cajon on March 25. Campa, who played several positions for the Lions, averaged 21 points, four rebounds, six steals and eight assists. . . . Ali Zakka scored three goals to lead the Corona boys’ soccer team to a 5-0 victory over Santa Paula in a Southern Section Division IV semifinal last week. Corona lost to La Canada in the final. . . . Pitcher Stephanie Bartlett contributed in many ways in Palm Desert’s softball doubleheader sweep of Beaumont. In the first game, she went three for three with two runs batted in, and in the second game, she hit a home run to help her to her first victory of the season. . . . Maribel Campos won three events, the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter races, and was second in the 400 as Coachella Valley beat Brawley in a dual meet to open the track season. . . . Jason Farmer struck out eight to lead Indio to a victory in the first game of a baseball doubleheader against Pacific, then went two for two in a second-game loss.