BASKETBALL PLAYOFF NOTEBOOK: CRESPI LOOKS BACK TO GO ON.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore and Rich Hammond Staff Writers

After all that happened last season, no one had a right to believe the Crespi High boys' basketball team would reach the Southern Section Division IV-A finals this year.

In fact, considering the negative vibes that surrounded last year's team, this year's goal was mere survival.

Yet, as the Celts prepare to face St. Paul at 5:45 p.m. Thursday in the Division IV-A championship game at the Pyramid in Long Beach, maybe last season was something the Celts had to experience in order to accomplish what they have this year.

``We saw the dark side of high school basketball,'' Crespi coach Dick Dornan said. ``And I think to a man, the guys decided they wanted no part of that kind of stuff. They wanted to get back what we had the year before, when we turned the corner with this program. They wanted that back.''

They got it. But first they had to work through some serious problems.

``They suffered a little bit, but they learned from it and have grown up as a result,'' Dornan said of a senior group led by Andrew Moore, Charlie Shiebler and Kingsley Anyanwu.

The problems were typical of a team that experiences some success, then loses perspective. There were complaints about playing time, shot distribution, roles, schemes and everything else with which players can take issue.

But after cleansing themselves of some of the main culprits, the Celts have been in tune - with themselves and the coaching staff. The result is earning a share of the Mission League title and advancing to a Southern Section final for the first time in school history.

--More Moore: As a sophomore, Andrew Moore was known primarily as a shooter. It wasn't that Moore didn't do anything else, just that shooting was his strength and he played to it. Over the last few years. he's added dimension to his game. The result is a well-rounded player who can hurt teams several ways.

``This year he's made the players around him better,'' Dornan said. ``That's the biggest area he's grown in over his career. He just understands the game a lot better now.''

Moore, Crespi's career leader in points with 1,248, is also a team leader. When the Celts went on an 18-0 scoring run to put away Oak Park in a 62-43 quarterfinals victory Friday, Moore was on the bench for most of the run.

But he was involved.

``He was the loudest guy on the bench cheering his teammates on,'' Dornan said.

--St. Paul numbers: Crespi needs to keep an eye on St. Paul guard Rudy Serna. He's only averaging 11 points per game, but he's been on a roll in the playoffs, hitting 23 3-pointers in four games.

--Major impact: Ben Olson scored only five points for Thousand Oaks in the Lancers 52-50 victory over Cajon in the Southern Section Division I-AA quarterfinals, but he had a huge impact.

``He's a guy that's 6-5 and can go inside or outside and he plays defense,'' said Thousand Oaks guard Kyle Kegley. ``When you have all that going for you, even on nights you don't score that much, you can have an impact.''

The Lancers play El Toro tonight in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. at Westlake High.

--Wizard watching: Montclair Prep is one of the smallest schools in the area, but its girls' basketball team has at least one famous follower: former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

Montclair Prep coach Bob Webb won a national title playing for Wooden, and Webb still keeps in touch with his mentor, almost 30 years later.

``I gave him a call after practice last Friday and he said he had been keeping track of the team,'' Webb said.

Wooden's protege has done his proud this year, as the Mounties are 25-0 and play Santa Clara today at Oxnard College at 7:30 p.m.

Unlike other coaches, who sometimes think it is better for a team to enter the playoffs with a loss to keep the team grounded, Webb would rather keep his team's momentum going.

``I think it's better to be undefeated in a way, because maybe it will make a team think, 'Are they invincible or what?' '' Webb said. ``I talked to (Wooden) about that and he said it depends on the team. If they don't get a big head or get cocky, it's good to be undefeated, and this team is pretty down to earth.''

--Brown resigns: Lancaster High boys' basketball coach Travis Brown will step down after the season. Brown, who guided the Eagles to a 20-win season for the first time in school history, is moving to East Lansing, Mich., with his wife, Kelly, who coaches the girls' junior varsity soccer team.

This season, Brown, 29, led Lancaster (20-7, 8-2) to its first Golden League championship - and the school's first title in a major sport (cross country had accounted for the program's previous championships).

``I think we've done a lot of good things here and not just in basketball,'' said Brown, a math teacher at Lancaster.

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Photo: Basketball player Kingsley Anyanwu and his Crespi High teammates have overcome adversity to advance to the Southern Section Division IV-AA finals against St. Paul.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer