Verbum Dei, St. Joseph/s players and coaches have heard, is an impatient boys basketball team.

The Knights hope to make the Eagles pay for that tonight.

Top-ranked St. Joseph, 29-3 and winner of 19 straight, face off against No. 2 Verbum Dei of Los Angeles at Cal State Fullerton for the Division IV Southern California Regional championship in the CIF State Playoffs.

Tipoff is at 7 p.m. KUHL 1440 AM will broadcast the game, with Brad Memberto and Irvin Kiger calling the action. The pregame show begins at 6:35 p.m.

As far as St. Joseph personnel know, this is the farthest a Knights boys basketball team has advanced. Coach Ed Torres/ 1998 St. Joseph team won a Southern Sectional divisional championship. Torres/ group defeated St. Bernard of Playa Del Rey 73-60 for the Southern Section Division IV-AA championship earlier this month.

The winner tonight plays either Valley Christian of San Jose or St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda at 4 p.m. next Friday at ARCO Arena in Sacramento for the Division IV state title.

Valley Christian and St. Joseph Notre Dame are seeded first and second respectively in the North Regional. Those teams play at 7 p.m. tonight at Delta College for the North Regional title.

Verbum Dei, 20-9, is seeded second in the Southern Regional. The Eagles "like to jack up the quick outside shot so their big men can crash the boards," said Kussler.

"We have to box out, get the long rebound."

"We hope to make them launch outside all night," St. Joseph guard Andrew Schmalbach said. "We heard they/re pretty undisciplined."

However, "They have a pretty quick point guard," who can dish off to the Eagles/ big men if the guard so desires, Schmalbach said.

The Eagles do have big men inside 7 6-8 sophomore Matt Shaw and 6-7 senior Lowell Grissom. They also have 6-6 guard-forward Brandon Anderson. 6-10 junior Micah Hamilton is also on Verbum Dei/s roster, but he did not start against Flintridge Prep of La Canada, which the Eagles walloped, 73-48, in the Southern Section Division IV-A final.

Seniors Kussler and Joe Tilley are the tallest Knights, at 6-4. Torres said on defense Kussler will be responsible for Grissom and Tilley will guard Shaw. Torres plans to put 6-0 Brandon Merlo on Anderson. "He likes to play high out on the post," Torres said of Anderson.

The job Merlo did on Horizon/s Quincy Robinson "was huge," Torres said. St. Joseph coaches said Robinson scored 30 and 20 points in his previous two games. Merlo kept him to an inconsequential 10 Thursday night.

Verbum Dei nipped third-seeded San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno 55-53 Thursday night to get into the regional final. St. Joseph beat back a stiff challenge from No. 4 Horizon of San Diego, 64-60, that evening.

Kussler helped the Knights to victory by scoring 29 points and making two free throws with 16 seconds left for St. Joseph/s last tallies. Tilley, who averages in double figures, scored just eight points. However, he made all three free throws for St. Joseph points 60, 61 and 62 after being fouled on a 3-point shot.

Some things went atypically wrong for the Knights Thursday night. They were only 14-for-24 on free throws and their scoring lacked its usual balance. However, they still held off a strong challenge from a good team.

"We didn/t panic," as Horizon was slicing the Knights/ 14-point lead to one, Torres said. "We/ve emphasized to the guys the importance of the first four minutes and the last four minutes of a game, and we/ve done well there."

"Every team has bad nights 7 (Thursday) night was one of ours," said Kussler. "But we stepped up when we had to, and Joe and I made the biggest free throws."

"We won a big game in front of a huge crowd (at Hancock College/s Joe White Memorial Gym)," Schmalbach said. "Hopefully that will happen 7 that will happen," tonight.

March 13, 2004