Some of the top girls basketball programs in Southern California showcased their talents at the Narbonne MLK Extravaganza this past Saturday. This was a day that brought together the City Section, Southern Section, and San Diego Section.
This was the fourth year of the showcase, which was created by Narbonne girls basketball coach Victoria Sanders. She wanted to make this more than just a day of basketball games, so she added more meaning to it by linking it to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Being that it’s Martin Luther King’s birthday this week, we just wanted to acknowledge all the hard work and dedication that he did,” Sanders said. “And to get the kids to understand what it’s all about. My coaches and I were talking, and we went to a lot of MLK events, and one thing that we saw missing were the speeches that Dr. King gave. We wanted to have his speeches here so that we could reflect.”
In between each game a recording of Dr. King performing a speech was played for the audience.
The purpose of this event was to bring together teams from different areas, and create competition between teams that would not normally play each other.
“We started off wanting to have some great match ups,” Sanders said. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s City Section, Southern Section, or San Diego Section. We just wanted to get in some good competition and see how teams competed against each other. We wanted to see where everybody was at midway through the season.”
For City Section power Narbonne, they put on a show in their victory over Bishop Montgomery, and they were able to get an up close look at their stiffest competition in Los Angeles. This year in the City Section, there will be an open division in the playoffs, where the top eight teams, regardless of division or school size, will face off for the City title.
Besides Narbonne, a couple other City Section teams were on hand at the showcase who are eyeing the open division. View Park has been running through the small schools division, racking up titles just about every year, and University is gearing up to play the toughest opponents in the city. LACES could also make it in.
The open division will crown a true champion, instead of having the top teams spread among multiple divisions.
“We know we won’t have any blowout games in the first round,” Sanders said. “We know that for sure with the open division. That’s what we wanted to do as far as the City Section. We definitealy won’t have any 40-point blowouts.”
Narbonne MLK Extravaganza results:
Leuzinger 60, Los Angeles CES 54
Narbonne 75, Bishop Montgomery 57
Redondo 57, San Diego Horizon 46
Los Altos 40, Roosevelt 38
View Park 37, Pius X 23
University 46, Mount Miguel 39
Millikan 72, Serra 63
Photo caption
Leuzinger guard Tajaheray Mcmahon (12) led her team over Los Angeles CES. Photo by Jason Lewis
