This time -- a rare time -- Sue Mahackian wasn't in control.

The former great Memorial High point guard and, for four seasons now, successful girls basketball coach at Edison stood on the Bullard court last week in a daze.

The first County/Metro Athletic Conference loss she had experienced in her Tigers career, after 32 wins, was part of it.

The Edison fan who had grilled her shamelessly for four quarters not 20 feet away was part of it.

Mostly, however, Mahackian was trying to get a grip on life that has dealt her family a bad hand.

Her mother and half-sister have had breast cancer surgery; a sister, Kathy, has been in advanced stages of it for six years; her father and a brother-in-law died of cancer; and now the loss of a brother, Ric, to complications of heart surgery Jan. 12.

"It's been tough, tragic, I can't even think," says Mahackian, who missed 11/2 weeks of practice following her 55-year-old brother's death in Fresno. "If I continue to feel stress down the line I may have to step away. I thank God I have faith, but I'm human and it's so hard, very painful."

Mahackian is 88-20 at Edison, and so much more. We can only hope a section standard of class remains in the game.

Hatton hits 400

Tulare boys basketball coach Mark Hatton won his 400th game Monday night with a 67-40 home-court decision over Porterville in the East Yosemite League.

"I just grew up wanting to make a difference in kids lives," says Hatton, who has won 70% of his games in a 400-168, 20-year career at Corcoran (nine) and Tulare (11).

His milestone came six days after Wasco's Mark Hutson delivered his section-leading 500th victory.

Hatton ranks No. 5 all-time in the section, one notch ahead of Bill Kuykendall (397-355), who coached Hatton and Mt. Whitney's 21-4, West Yosemite League-championship team in 1983.

"Those guys in the top 10 are my heroes," Hatton says.

Here's the leading 10, according to historian Bob Barnett: 1, Hutson (500-249, Bakersfield/Taft/Wasco); 2, Don Perales (469-426, Lindsay); 3, Gerald Saunders (460-375, Selma/Riverdale/Delano); 4, Gino Lacava (404-162, Garces); 5, Hatton (400-168, Corcoran/Tulare); 6, Kuykendall (397-355, Tulare Western/Mt. Whitney/Farmersville); 7, Brad Felder (382-189, Washington/Hanford); 8, Joe Dominguez (357-153, East Bakersfield); 9, Rex Robertson (357-283, Woodlake/Golden West); 10, Jim McCall (355-431, Firebaugh).

Prep peeps

-- Memorial 7-foot center Robert Upshaw has a bruised shin, which is why he returned to the locker room during halftime warmups and didn't start the third quarter Thursday in the Panthers' riveting 66-65 CMAC home-court win over Bullard.

He will lead his fifth-ranked team at No. 9 Edison tonight in yet another league showdown that will surely test Memorial's emotional tank.

"That one [against Bullard] took a lot out of us, and probably them, too," says Panthers coach Pat Geil, who had taken 15 Advil by noon Friday. "And I still had a headache. That's not good."

-- Central Valley Christian's boys basketball team, ranked No. 7 overall and No. 1 in Division IV, will attempt to complete a sweep of Tulare County heavyweights when the Cavaliers play at No. 10 Mt. Whitney on Friday in a nonleague game. This will occur two weeks after CVC defeated Tulare 54-48 as part of the MLK Showcase at College of the Sequoias.

-- If Washington receiver Deontay Greenberry signs with Notre Dame as expected Wednesday on National Signing Day, he will become what is believed to be the section's first football player to sign with the Irish since Clovis quarterback Daryle Lamonica in 1959. USC and UCLA are holding out hope for State and Bee Player of the Year Greenberry.