Greenwood Gets a Title As a Coach

SACRAMENTO —  David Greenwood never got the opportunity to win a state championship when he played center for Verbum Dei High in the 1970s because the tournament did not start until 1982.

But in his first year as coach at his alma mater, Greenwood has tried to instill the principles of teamwork that made the talented teams he played on into a recognized national power.

Despite a less-than-perfect performance on Friday, Verbum Dei defeated stubborn Pacific Grove, 59-50, for the Division IV state title at Arco Arena.

“That might have been the worst game we played all year,” said Greenwood, who played at UCLA and completed his NBA career in 1991 with the San Antonio Spurs. “But winning ugly is cool. I don’t mind.”

Verbum Dei (23-5), making its first state final appearance since winning the championship in 1995, won the game behind the play of junior guard Marlon Parmer, who scored eight points of his game-high 21 points in the final 3:13 after Pacific Grove tied the score, 46-46 with 4:08 left.

“I’ve never guarded a point guard that was as quick as (Parmer),” said Pacific Grove’s Michael Lazzari, a foreign-exchange student from Australia who scored a team-high 16 points. “He was an awesome penetrator.”

Pacific Grove (27-3) got as close as 52-50 on a three-point basket by Brandon Francis with 1:55 left, but Verbum Dei held the Breakers scoreless the rest of the way and made seven of nine free throws in the final 1:20 for the victory.

Robert Watkins scored 16 points and Dalron Johnson added 13 points and 15 rebounds for Verbum Dei.

In the Division IV girls’ final:

Playa del Rey St. Bernard 61, Colfax 57--The Vikings outlasted Colfax, but only after some anxious moments.

St. Bernard (30-4), making its second consecutive appearance in the final, clinched the victory when senior guard Tracee Lewis made an eight-foot jump shot off a drive with seven seconds left to put the Vikings ahead, 59-55.

Megan Turner pulled Colfax to within two on two free throws with 3.8 seconds left and the Falcons called time out. They fouled sophomore guard Shannon Howell, who made two free throws with 1.2 seconds left for the final margin.

Howell scored a game-high 20 points and also had six assists for St. Bernard, which won its third state championship. The Vikings won consecutive titles in 1993 and ‘94, and lost in the final last year against Moraga Campolindo.

“I kept thinking, ‘My God, why do we always have to make it so hard,’ ” said first-year Coach Felicia Simon, who was an assistant at St. Bernard for four seasons before taking over this season. “We never really got to play our game.”

St. Bernard led by 11 points with two minutes left in the first half, but Colfax closed to within 32-28 by halftime.

The Falcons cut the deficit to 46-45 with 7:15 left on a basket by Rose Calvert, who scored 12 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter.

St. Bernard never allowed Colfax (28-8) to tie the score or go ahead.