SANTA ANA – Harvey Kitani was initiated into a club with an exclusive membership Friday night.
Just how exclusive is it?
Well, roll call would take about 15 seconds.
The Rolling Hills Prep boys’ basketball club joined two other coaches still cranking out the wins, Gary McKnight of Mater Dei and Mike LeDuc of Damien, as the sole members of California’s “1,000 boys varsity basketball victories” coaches’ club Friday night at Mater Dei High.
Appropriately, the 1KW came against another of the most successful coaches in the sport, Grant Rice and his Las Vegas Bishop Gorman program, 60-45, in the third boys game Friday night in the opening day of the two-day XXXI Nike Extravaganza.
Rice’s teams have won 626 games and 15 Nevada championships since becoming the coach at the school in 2001.
The Huskies (20-6) jumped out to a 24-4 advantage after the first quarter and got dominant post play by 6-foot-9 junior Nick Welch Jr. (15 points, 17 rebounds and four blocked shots) and 6-8 senior Kawika Suter (16 points, five rebounds, a blocked shot and two steals).
Kitani, a graduate of Gardena High and Long Beach State, was the head coach at San Fernando High for one season (1979-80), before moving to Fairfax where he coached before he retired from the L.A. Unified School District after the 2015-16 season.
He’s coached at Rolling Hills Prep since.
“You never imagine anything like this (when going to college and planning to become a coach),” he said Friday night in between the congratulations of the multitudes who approached him for handshakes, hugs and assorted well-wishes.
“This is all about the great support I’ve gotten from my family, and all of the great coaches and players I’ve worked with through the years.”
One of those well-wishers was McKnight, who has had many memorable on-court coaching battles with Kitani and his teams since the mid 1980s.
Twenty minutes or so later, McKnight’s Monarchs fell behind by 20 points midway through the second quarter against Phoenix St. Mary’s in the last game of the evening.
Duke-bound Cameron Williams had 15 points (including four 3s), seven rebounds and two blocked shots for the visitors that ended with St. Mary’s ahead, 45-30.
Juniors Zain Majeed and Richie Ramirez combined for all but four of the Monarchs’ first-half points.
The second half was a different story.
The 6-8 Majeed finished with 30 points (and five rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots) and the 6-1 Ramirez with 23 and five assists, while Kansas-bound Luke Barnett – held to just a layup in six shots attempts in the first half – scored 12 points in the second half and overtime to help his team bag the decision, 76-73.
Williams seemed a tad fatigued – and much better defended by the Monarchs – in the second half while finishing with 23 points, 11 rebounds, four blocked shots
In other games Friday:
*Orange Lutheran 94, Los Altos 57: The Lancers, who suffered a gut-knotting, buzzer-beating loss to Mater Dei in a Wednesday night Trinity League game, got 27 points from senior Josh King and 21 from sophomore Noah Zeola.
*Capistrano Valley Christian 58, Rathdrum (ID) Lakeland 40: Senior guard Matthew Ahern had quite the game at both ends of the floor, with 24 points, four rebounds, four assists and 10 steals as the Eagles improved to 12-11 after snapping a four-game losing streak.
Senior center Brayden Correl had eight points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks (7-6), who are led by former Colony High player and coach Caleb DeFabiis.
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