Harvard-Westlake Girls Play It Again With Morningside

It’s the same script. The same characters. Even the same scenery.

Another Police Academy movie? Not quite.

Harvard-Westlake High will play Inglewood Morningside today at 4:45 p.m. at The Pyramid in Long Beach to determine the Southern Section Division III-A girls’ basketball championship, the second consecutive season these teams have played for the title.

Harvard-Westlake has four starters from the team that defeated the Monarchs, 45-41, last season to claim its first section championship.

Kamesha Bell and Acheve Barre, Morningside’s top two players in 1997-98, are back.

“We’re certainly very familiar with each other,” said Coach Frank Scott of second-seeded Morningside (20-9), which is seeking its eighth section title.

These teams played three times last season. The Wolverines eliminated Morningside from the Southern Regional.

The Monarchs defeated Harvard-Westlake during a winter tournament.

This time, the top-seeded Wolverines (26-4) are aiming for more than a section title.

“Our goal is to be state champs,” said Coach Brian Taylor, whose team fell one game short of advancing to the state championship game last year.

The Wolverines are ranked No. 1 in the state among Division III schools and favored by most to be playing in Sacramento, site of the state championship, in two weeks.

“I would expect them to make it,” said Coach Jo Ann Reck of Santa Ynez, whose team lost to Harvard-Westlake, 65-46, last week in the semifinals. “They’re solid inside and outside. That’s tough to stop.”

Harvard-Westlake has several offensive weapons, none more potent than 6-foot senior forward Omelogo Udeze.

Udeze is averaging 20.7 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.6 blocks, and collected 28 points and 11 rebounds Saturday against Santa Ynez.

She recently became the first Wolverine girls’ player to collect 1,000 points and rebounds in her career and holds the school record in both categories.

Guards Brooke Porter and L’Tanya Robnett and forward Rolake Bamgbose, all juniors, started alongside Udeze last season.

Morningside’s strength is its front line of seniors Bell and Barre, and freshman Donnisha Sanford.

Bell is averaging 16.5 points and 12 rebounds, Barre is averaging 12 points and seven rebounds and Sanford needs seven rebounds to break Lisa Leslie’s freshman school record of 283.

The task for Morningside guards Nicole Ingram, a transfer from Inglewood High, and freshman Lisel Tucker will be to limit the outside damage done by Porter and Robnett.

“That will be a big key for us,” Scott said.

Porter, averaging 11 points and six assists, and Robnett, averaging 10 points, each made four three-point baskets in the semifinals.

Porter scored 17 points last season in the section final. Robnett scored seven points in the final five minutes of the four-point victory.

Harvard-Westlake is gunning for its fourth section basketball title in a row. The school’s boys’ team won championships in ‘95-96 and ‘96-97.