City 4-A Basketball Semifinals : It’s Crenshaw vs. Carson Manual Arts vs. Banning

Defending City champion Crenshaw (19-0) plays Carson (17-7) tonight at 9:15 and Manual Arts (16-5) is matched against Banning (17-7) at 7:30 in 4-A semifinal games at the Sports Arena.

The quadruple-header opens with two girls’ 4-A semi-final games. Kennedy (12-0) plays Washington (10-2) at 4 p.m. and defending champion Locke (10-0) is paired against Fremont (9-3) at 5:45.

Both of the boys’ 4-A games are rematches of games played earlier this season. In a contest that was fairly typical of the margin by which Crenshaw won games in the regular season, the Cougars easily handled Carson, 86-61, on Dec. 11. Crenshaw’s forward Stevie Thompson had 28 points, his season average.

Carson, featuring a more balanced attack, is led by forwards Earl Martin and Don January and guard Issy Washington.

While both Crenshaw and Carson have been holding their opponents to about 60 points a game, Crenshaw has been devastating on offense, scoring more than 100 points in 11 of its last 12 games.

In the other 4-A game, Manual Arts Coach Reggie Morris has the unenviable task of trying to beat a good Banning team for the fourth straight time this season.

The two met for the first time in the fifth-lace finals of The Times’ Tournament of Champions in December, with Manual Arts winning, 57-53. The Toilers followed that up with 57-50 and 65-62 victories in Pacific League play.

Manual Arts has been led most of the season by 6-8 center Tony Martin and 6-3 forward James Bledsoe, but in the two playoff games, 6-7 forward Marco Fleming has scored 26 and 15 points, respectively.

Banning, which has an uncanny ability to peak for the playoffs, as evidenced by its upset of second-seeded Cleveland Wednesday, relies on the scoring of forward Eric Cooper and the athletic abilities of center Joey Johnson.

In the Boys’ 3-A semifinals tonight, top-seeded Fairfax (23-1) is at Wilson (19-1), while San Pedro (14-5) is at Van Nuys (21-2). Both games are at 7:30.

The teams have not played each other this season, but there are some interesting comparisons.

Wilson’s only loss this season was to South Gate, 46-39. Fairfax’s, whose only loss was to Banning--55-51, in the final of the Banning Tournament--defeated South Gate Wednesday in a quarter-final game, 67-42.

In Wednesday’s quarterfinals, San Pedro was a 76-73 winner over Reseda, a team that Van Nuys edged, 56-54, in the final of the Birmingham Tournament in December.