Class May Be Out in a 151-5 Rout

The coach scheduled a special game for his team’s season opener, agreeing to play a small-school powerhouse because he thought his undermanned team would benefit from the experience of seeing how high school basketball is supposed to be played -- what a strong opponent looks like and how a successful program conducts itself.

What Coach Stephen Moore and South Bay High got instead was a 151-5 shellacking at the hands of Stoneridge Prep on Tuesday night.

South Bay’s five points were the fewest ever by a Southern Section boys’ team, while Stoneridge Prep, which advanced to the Division V-A championship game last season, tied the Southern Section record for points in a game.

And that lesson? It was a different kind of high school basketball experience.

Moore was upset Wednesday that Stoneridge Prep continued to play aggressively on offense and defense, even when the lead was as large as 70-3 late in the second quarter.

“At which point does it become ridiculous?” Moore said. “Are you guys trying to prove a point? Are we really working on sportsmanship and team ball here?”

Teaching is especially important at South Bay, a residential facility in Torrance with an enrollment of 56 students. Most of the students are wards of juvenile court, kids who come from “extremely abusive or neglectful backgrounds,” Moore said, and have mothers or fathers who have had their parenting rights terminated in some cases.

South Bay had 10 players on the team, including three girls, one of whom started at small forward.

South Bay committed 64 turnovers, almost all of them leading to easy baskets for Stoneridge Prep, which accentuated some breakaways with thunderous dunks and alley-oop passes.

Stoneridge Prep Coach Ron Slater, in his first year at the private Tarzana school of 45 students, did not feel his team did anything inappropriate. He said he called off a full-court press after the first quarter, with the score, 36-3, but continued to employ an aggressive half-court man-to-man defense throughout the game.

“Just because we’re not playing a good team, I still want my guys playing good fundamental defense,” Slater said.

Slater said his top players sat out most of the second and fourth quarters.

Stoneridge Prep had only eight players Tuesday and was without star point guard Leon Usher. Senior guard James Spencer led the team with 35 points.

Moore has been at South Bay since shortly after the school opened six years ago and has coached basketball there for three years. His teams have won three or four games and lost about 45 -- he doesn’t know the exact numbers.

“I can’t run a program that focuses only on winning,” Moore said. “I need to maintain more therapeutic goals, such as teamwork, sportsmanship, the things the [Southern Section] would like schools to focus on.

“There’s not a lot of emotional support [in the players’ pasts], or positive experiences with a lot of people -- they’re troubled kids from tough backgrounds.”

Moore said South Bay opponents usually slow the tempo if a game gets out of hand.

“In the past we’ve played teams that have recognized who these kids are, and when they steal the ball from us, they’ll cut to the basket but then pull it out and set up a play,” Moore said.

Slater did not consider that option. “I don’t tell my guys, ‘Don’t go score, just hold the ball,’ ” he said. “That would be taking away from my guys.”

The teams shook hands after the game, which was played at Sylmar High, but not everybody was happy. A South Bay player who argued with fans afterward was lectured about his behavior upon returning to the school.

Interviews with South Bay players are not allowed because of confidentiality reasons, Moore said.

Stoneridge Prep Principal Maria Arnold said she would not have approved of a game against South Bay if she had known of the differences between the schools.

“We did not know exactly who we were playing,” Arnold said. “If I knew, we would have never played them. It’s not fair to them.”

South Bay Principal Edward R. Wilson said the score was “run up

Slater said he would have been open to such a suggestion. “It wasn’t my intention to run the score up,” Slater said. “They could have came to me at halftime and said it was out of hand. We could have stopped it then.”

There have been other lopsided basketball games.

In January 1982, Cheryl Miller scored 105 points for Riverside Poly in a 179-15 victory over Riverside Norte Vista.

In February 1990, Lisa Leslie scored 101 points for Inglewood Morningside in the first half of a game against South Torrance. Morningside led at halftime, 102-24, and South Torrance decided not to take the court for the second half.

Nationally, there were two blowouts on the same day in January 2001: Heritage Christian Academy, near Houston, defeated Banff Private School, 178-28, and Dajuan Wagner of Camden, N.J., scored 100 points in a 157-67 victory over Gloucester Township Technical School.

In the end, Moore regretted saying yes to a game against Stoneridge Prep.

“I started our team off with a tough game because I wanted to show them what high school basketball looks like,” Moore said. “I wanted it to be a learning tool, so our kids can understand what it takes to win and play better. But the final score was horrid.”