BOYS’ BASKETBALL
MEN’S SWIMMING
Good shots for titles at CCS
The Streak at stake in the Pac-10 finals Winning a 29th straight conference meet title will be more difficult for the Cardinal after losing a top team member
Sacred Heart Prep, Pinewood take aim at section crowns against top-seeded opponents
by Keith Peters
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by Keith Peters
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Keith Peters
Pinewood senior Max Lippe (15) had 23 points and 15 rebounds in 5345 CCS Division V semifinal win over Marina.
member the year of the meet. There have been simply too many team victories over the years. This week, the No. 3-ranked Cardinal will be up against No. 1-ranked Arizona and No. 4 Cal, among others. The Bears feature sprinter Nathan Adrian, who won a gold medal on the USA’s 400-meter free relay that won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. He is the reigning Pac10 Swimmer of the Year. Should Stanford make it 29 straight this week at the Belmont Olympic Plaza Pool in Long Beach, Kenney might not forget this one for some time. That’s because of who is not swimming for the Cardinal — junior Austin Staab. Staab left the team, and school, in midseason for personal reasons. In doing so, he left a huge hole to fill. He won the 100 fly at last season’s NCAA Championships. At the 2009 Pac-10 meet, he won the 100 fly, took second in the 50 free and 100 (continued on page 37)
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Stanford women continue their preparation for NCAA title bid No. 2-ranked Cardinal (17-0, 27-1) can finish off perfect year in Pac-10 by beating host Cal by Rick Eymer “We have challenges ahead,” Pedayne Appel has plenty of moti- ersen said. “We’ll see how we can vation as the Stanford women’s use these last two games to get us basketball team prepares for its ready for California and to go into regular-season finale Saturday at the Pac-10 tournament with some California. Tipoff is scheduled for momentum.” 12:10 p.m. The Cardinal, which has won 18 The ultimate goal is the national straight since losing to Connecticut, championship but in the meantime also can claim its first undefeated there are things which conference season in she and her team can eight years. work on correcting. “They are so consis“It was be bad if we tent day in and day out were content,” Appel with what they do,” Arisaid. “We need to handle zona State coach Charli pressure better and we Turner Thorne said. need to rebound better. “You have to give them Ultimately we need to credit.” work on all things.” Appel, in particular, On the surface, the has become more of a second-ranked Cardinal presence the past two (17-0, 27-1) has little to weeks. She became the fret over. There’s anoth- Jayne Appel Pac-10 all-time rebounder Pac-10 championship ing leader in last Thursbanner to jam into Maples, the top day’s 63-42 win over Arizona State seed in the conference tournament and has 13 of her career 45 doubleis assured and likely a top seed for double contests this season. the NCAA tournament. “It’s her senior year and it’s “Weíre not guaranteed anything in March,” Turner Thorne said. “She’s the NCAA,” Stanford’s Kayla Ped- really stepping it up and I’m sure ersen said. “So winning the (Pac-10) she will continue to do so.” tournament would be great, and, of The Cardinal beat Arizona, 75course, trying to show everybody 48, last Saturday. why we deserve a No. 1 seed.” During the wining streak StanThis is not the time to relax ford has won 15 games by 20 or though, the players insist. It’s, really, more points. time to focus even sharper, to make “Every team gives you a puzzle to things crisper, to take their game to solve,” Stanford coach Tara VanDeranother, higher, level. veer said.
J Keith Peters
he Sacred Heart Prep and Pinewood boys’ basketball programs have a history in the Central Coast Section playoffs, although not much of one. In 1995, the Gators defeated the Panthers in the Division V finals, 51-50. In 1992, Pinewood handed SHP a 64-50 defeat. Both teams are back in the section championships this weekend at Santa Clara University, just not in the same bracket and certainly not playing each other. Both, however, have the same goal. That would be to add to their previous section titles. Sacred Heart Prep has won three, the most recent in 2008 under current head coach Tony Martinelli. Pinewood has won two, the first in 1987 and the second in ‘92. Both teams will be in similar situations this week. The Gators and Panthers are both seeded No. 2 in their respective divisions and will be facing No. 1-seeded teams. Sacred Heart Prep (21-5) will bring a 13-game winning streak into the CCS Division IV championship game on Friday at Santa Clara University at 4:45 p.m. The Gators’ opponent, No. 1 Palma (23-3), will bring a 17-game winning streak. “One of the streaks has to end,” said Martinelli. “This is a great opportunity. We haven’t won there (at Santa Clara) and would be our first Division IV title in school history.” While both teams already have qualified for the CIF NorCal playoffs that begin next Tuesday, neither is looking past Friday’s showdown. Martinelli, for one, believes his team has a pretty good shot “We’ve seen them a couple of times, and have a pretty good idea about them,” Martinelli said. “They have a big guy inside, but they don’t play much with a post presence. (But) If they get it going from the 3, they could be tough.” The main common opponent for both teams this season has been Pacific Grove. The Chieftans held on for a 58-56 on Dec. 18 while the Gators handed PG a 51-35 loss in the CCS quarterfinals last weekend. “That’s kind of interesting,” Martinelli said of Palma’s game with Pacific Grove. “But I think the Palma game is a big one for Pacific Grove and all the other teams down there so they always get up for them.” Menlo School is the other common opponent. Sacred Heart handled the Knights easily in two WBAL games this season while Palma beat Menlo in the CCS quarterfinals, 5343. Thus, SHP certainly won’t be in over its head on Friday. Sacred Heart Prep advanced to its third CCS championship game since 2006 with a thrilling 55-54 victory over No. 3 seed Santa Cruz (19-10) on Tuesday night at Hartnell
t is known simply as The Streak, and there is nothing else like it in Division I men’s swimming. As a matter of fact, it would take some digging to unearth another college team with more consecutive conference titles. The Stanford men’s swimming and diving team owns The Streak. It stands at 28 straight Pacific-10 Conference championships. It is monumental, twice as many as legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden won with his teams. Stanford’s streak has taken on a life of its own, providing both motivation and fear each season. “You don’t want to be the team that lost it, or the senior class that lost it,” said Stanford senior Eugene Godsoe. It most years, winning the Pac-10 title was a slam dunk for Stanford. Head coach Skip Kenney, however, recalled one year where his team had to win the final 400 free relay in order to steal away another title. Kenney, however, couldn’t re-
Sacred Heart Prep junior Reed McConnell hit the game-winning shot in a 55-54 CCS Division IV semifinal win over Santa Cruz. College in Salinas. “It’s tough when you play a team three times,” said Martinelli, whose team beat the Cardinals twice in December. “We knew they had some film on us.” Santa Cruz played man-to-man defense the last time the teams met. This time the Cardinals played a 2-3 zone that collapsed on SHP’s interior players, most notably Ty Cobb. “They were really focused on him,” Martinelli said of Cobb, who had 16 rebounds in the previous game. Against Santa Cruz, however, he rarely got his hands on the ball and thus one key offensive component for SHP was removed.
With the focus on the inside, Sacred Heart sophomore Cole McConnell came off the bench for five 3-pointers and a career-high 17 points. Sacred Heart grabbed a five-point halftime lead but trailed by one entering the final period after scoring just six points in the third. The Gators trailed by two points with seven seconds to play when junior Reed McConnell hit a three-pointer from NBA range to give SHP a one-point lead. With four seconds left, Santa Cruz called a time out. The Cardinals had (continued on page 36)
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