Kenny Hale, one of the last surviving members of San Diego State’s 1940-41 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics basketball championship team, passed away at age 90.

A 1938 San Diego High graduate, Hale eventually went into coaching and had winning records at Hoover and Mission Bay.

Led by superstar Bill McColl, Hoover was 20-8 in Hale’s first season as coach and second in the Coast League in 1947-48.

Hale’s last team at Hoover was 23-3 in 1951-52 and won the City Prep League with an 11-1 record.

Hoover’s overall record under Hale was 76-45, with other years of 9-11, 10-16, and 14-7.

Kenny took over the new Mission Bay program in 1954-55 and built a winner before retiring from coaching after the 1957-58 campaign and going into administration.  Hale later  was principal at Horace Mann Junior High.

Hale’s record with the Buccaneers was 53-45.  They were 8-16 and 10-16 in the first two seasons and then got rolling with successive seasons of 17-7 and 18-6.

The Buccaneers won the prestigious, 32-team San Diego Kiwanis Tournament in 1956-57 and 1957-58.  They tied for second in the City Prep League in each of the last two seasons.

St. Augustine’s 6-0 run through the San Diego Section, Southern California regionals, and CIF State championship game resulted in the Saints making a huge leap to overall  No. 10 in Cal-Hi Sports’ final rankings for 2012-13.

Horizon finished No. 1 in Division V.

The Saints were “On the Bubble”, meaning unranked, at the end of the regular season.

Coach Mike Haupt’s club made its way up the ladder by shaking a three-game loss streak against Cathedral Catholic and winning the San Diego Section III title;

Overcame an 11-point four-quarter disadvantage versus West Hills Chaminade in the regional finals;

And fought off San Francisco Cathedral Sacred Heart in overtime in Sacramento for the State D-III championship.

The Saints’ 29-4 record was attained while losing to only two teams, thrice to Cathedral Catholic and once to Sacramento Sheldon.

Sheldon, 27-6, was fifth in the final Cal-Hi poll and Cathedral, 29-5, was 30^th.  The top four were Santa Ana Mater Dei, 34-2; Etiwanda, 28-4; Long Beach Poly, 29-4, and San Jose Mitty, 28-6.

Other San Diego-area teams in Cal-Hi’s top 40 included Army-Navy, 29^th, and Mission Hills, 37^th.

Mission Hills was 15^th in the state in D-I, Hoover, 31-6, was sixth and San Marcos 11^th in D-II.  St. Augustine was second  to Bellflower St. John Bosco, 24-7, in D-III and Cathedral fifth.

Army-Navy finished fourth in  D-IV.

Horizon, which also had a 6-0 run in the playoffs, improved to 21-11 overall and defeated Alameda St. Joseph Notre Dame 47-46 in Sacramento to jump to the top spot in D-V.  Foothills Christian, 19-15, climbed to ninth.

The circumstance and the stage may have made for the most defining athletic moment in St. Augustine’s 91-year history.

It wasn’t that the Saints pulled away from San Francisco Sacred Heart Cathedral in overtime Saturday in Sacramento and won the State Division III championship, 59-52.  That would be second.

No. 1 would be the gutty, cold-as-ice performance at the free throw line by the Saints’ Trey Kell.

After leading almost all 32 minutes St. Augustine was about to blow the championship sky high to the resourceful Fightin’ Irish, who come from a school that had been around 48 years before the Augustinian priests founded St. Augustine in 1922 at the intersection of 32^nd and Nutmeg  in North Park.

Surrendering a four-point lead with 26.8 seconds to play and trailing, 47-44, the Saints had a last chance when Kell attempted a three-point jumper.

3 OR OUT

Trey was fouled on his trey with 2.9 seconds remaining.  The Sacred Heart blunder gave the Saints hope, but Kell would have to make three successive free throws, with everything on the line.

The 6-foot, 4-inch junior guard drained all three.  Each attempt hit the bottom of the net.  It was a remarkable demonstration of poise and skill.

Kell finished the game with 30 points and 11 rebounds in another superlative performance that begged the question:

Why wasn’t Kell (or teammate Brynton Lemar) chosen San Diego Section player of the year, instead of 7-foot Kameron Rooks, whose Mission Hills team took a 17-point beating in the Southern California regional final against Santa Monica?

Kell is a difference maker.

The victory gave coach Mike Haupt his first state championship in Haupt’s 17-season run (330-173 overall record) with the Saints (29-4), erasing some of the disappointment of a 67-56 loss to Santa Cruz in the D-III championship in 2005.

Haupt told Terry Monahan of UT-San Diego that “I was losing my mind in the final minutes.  I could feel it slipping away.”

As he did in the Saints’ 11-point, fourth-quarter comeback against West Hills Chaminade in the Southern regional the week before, Haupt kept his hand on the rudder and his  team rode out the storm.

DEFEAT WAS ON THE HORIZON

Horizon’s finish with Alameda  St. Joseph Notre Dame in D-V was just as frantic as the Saints’.

Sophomore Ethan Underwood launched a running jumper from beyond the NBA three-point line as time expired and Horizon, No. 1 seed from the South, pulled out a 47-46 victory  over the top seed from the North.

Coach Tyrone Hopkins’ Panthers closed with a rush, winning their last nine games to finish with a 21-11 record and their fourth state championship.

Horizon won D-IV titles in 2002, ’04, and ’06.

St. Augustine won the best 2 out of 5 with Cathedral Catholic.

The Saints defeated the Dons with a 25-13 fourth quarter tonight and earned a berth in the Southern California regional finals Saturday at Colony High in Ontario. The final score was 55-45.

Coach Mike Haupt’s team commanded the backboards and hit the big shots in the final period to win their second straight from Cathedral after losing three in a row to their Catholic rivals during the  regular season.

The other Saints victory was 62-36 last week in the San Diego Section finals.

A overflow crowd of about 2,700 taxed the Rancho Bernardo venue.  The gymnasium lights went out five times during warm-ups and the tipoff was delayed 10 minutes.  The building’s air conditioning apparently was stressed by the warm weather and testosterone-filled crowd.

The Saints led 24-15 late in the second quarter, but the Dons gradually went ahead 34-32 early in the fourth.  That’s when “shoulda-been-Section-player-of-the-year” Trey Kell took over, answering two three-points baskets by Cathedral with two of his own and put the game away with free throws.

Cathedral’s frustration was mirrored by guard David Rosenberg, a player you don’t like, if he’s not on your team.

With 3 seconds remaining and the game clinched, the Saints retreated to their bench.  The fiery Rosenberg took an inbounds pass, dribbled the length of the court and missed a dunk as the game ended.

Six San Diego Section teams, out of the original 13, still are practicing and still preparing as the Southern California regional playoffs reach a critical semifinals round.

At least one of the remaining six will be eliminated in games Tuesday, March 12, and one will qualify for the finals Saturday, March 16, at Colony High in Ontario.  That’s because St. Augustine and Cathedral Catholic will meet for a fifth time this season, on the neutral Rancho Bernardo court.

Some 2,000 mostly Saints fans watched Saturday night as coach Mike Haupt’s club scalded Lawndale Leuzinger with a 16-0 run at the start of the fourth quarter to put an end to the shorter Olympians, who battled for three quarters despite an overall 45-23 deficiency in rebounds.

Cathedral advanced with a 57-45 victory at Tustin.

Hoover overcame San Marcos in the fourth quarter for the second time in a week to win 59-56.

St. Augustine is No. 1 seed in Division I and Cathedral is 5.  Hoover is the 3 seed in D-II and visits old rival Redondo Beach Redondo Union, the 2 seed.

CARDINALS SUCCESSFUL 57 YEARS AGO

The last time Hoover was at Redondo was in 1956 in the Southern Section quarterfinals.  The Cardinals defeated the Seahawks 56-54 on Bill Landry’s jump shot as time expired.

Other semifinals games:

Mission Hills, No. 4, goes to Santa Monica (27-6), the top seed in D-1.  The Grizzlies survived No. 5 Inglewood, 49-47.

Army-Navy (29-4), a 78-71 winner over Encino Crespi, gets another home game at Oceanside High.  The 2 seed Warriors face Torrance Bishop Montgomery (31-1), a Southern Section powerhouse whose No. 6 seeding left many observers dumbfounded.

Top seed Horizon (18-11) moved on in D-V to take on 4 seed Sun Valley Village Christian (28-4)  after defeating Valencia Trinity Classical, 52-33.

PREDICTING

We tabbed 6 out of 9 in the quarterfinals.  The experiment in picking the scores was a disaster but I might try it again.

Eight of 11 San Diego Section teams won first-round games and advanced to Saturday’s Southern California regional quarterfinals.  Two others which received first-round byes will swing into action.

Pairings, records ( ) and seeds ):

DIVISION I
5) Inglewood (19-10)  at  4) Mission Hills (27-4).

II
5) La Costa Canyon (28-5)  at  4) Westlake Village Westlake (27-5).
11) San Marcos (27-5)  at  3) Hoover (30-5).

III
9) Lawndale Leuzinger (23-8)  vs.  1) St. Augustine (25-4) at Rancho Bernardo.
5) Cathedral Catholic (29-4)  at   4) Tustin (30-2).

IV
8) Mater Dei Catholic (26-6) vs. Gardena Serra (25-6) at  Torrance El Camino College.
10) Encino Crespi (23-9)   vs.  2) Army-Navy (28-4)  at  Oceanside High.

V
9) Valencia Trinity Classical  (19-6)  at   1) Horizon (17-11).
10) Foothills Christian (19-14)  at  2) Sherman Oaks Buckley (23-6).

OUR GUESSES
I–Inglewood  72, Mission Hills 63.

II–La Costa Canyon 58, Westlake 54.
Hoover 74, San Marcos 65.

III–St. Augustine 65, Leuzinger 58.
Tustin 69, Cathedral 60.

IV–Serra 77, Mater Dei 52.
Army-Navy 63, Crespi 55.

V–Horizon  47, Trinity Classical  40.
Sherman Oaks Buckley 75, Foothills Christian 55.

CARDINALS SHAKE MID-GAME FUNK

Hoover defeated Las Flores Tesoro, 84-60, with a fast start and equally swift finish in its first-round game at Hoover.

Leading  39-22 after a 16-0 run, but with rebounding and inside presence Jordan Alexander on the bench with 3 fouls, Hoover was bumped out of the fast lane by the plucky Titans.

Tesoro launched a 20-4 run of its own and trailed only 43-42 midway in the third quarter, despite playing without  6-foot, 8-inch center Tanner Lancoma, a Washington State-bound center who was out with  a groin injury.

Hoover eventually regained its stride, pulling away to 59-46 at the end of the third quarter.  The Cardinals turned the fourth quarter into a 25-14 clinic of breakaways, dunks, and three-point  jumpers.