Small Colleges : Dominguez Hills’ Defense Pays Off

Cal State Dominguez Hills’ championship in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournament was a victory of discipline and consistency over a relatively equal but streaky Cal Poly San Luis Obispo team.

The Toros’ 70-58 victory before a packed house in San Luis Obispo sent them to this weekend’s NCAA Division II Western Regional at Eastern Montana in Billings. The Toros (22-7) will play Alaska Anchorage at 6 p.m. Friday (PST).

In the other game there, top-seeded Eastern Montana (21-6) will play Cal State Hayward (11-18). Hayward got into the regional by winning the Northern California Athletic Conference tournament after finishing fourth during the regular season. Hayward won both tournament games in double overtime, knocking off top-seeded Sonoma State, 90-84, and Humboldt State, 80-79.

The Toros got unexpected scoring from sophomore center Anthony Blackmon in the CCAA tournament opener and defeated Chapman College, 68-65. Chapman held Dominguez Hills’ high-scoring forward tandem, William Alexander and Tony Akins, to 12 points apiece, but Blackmon produced a season-high 19.

Against San Luis Obispo, Alexander was back to par with 19 points, and the Toros shot 54%. Alexander was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

The constant in both cases was Coach Dave Yanai’s man-to-man defense. The Toros held Chapman to 41% shooting, and Cal Poly to 31%. Dominguez Hills is holding opponents to 42% this season and is 16-1 when the other team shoots 41% or less.

The Toros have the best record in school history and are on a four-game winning streak.

Cal Poly had one of the streakiest seasons on record, but the Mustangs defeated highly ranked UC Riverside to reach the CCAA final. The Mustangs boasted forward Sean Chambers, who was named CCAA co-Most Valuable Player (with Alexander) for the second straight season, and another solid forward in Melvin Parker. But Cal Poly had problems getting production from its backcourt.

The Mustangs opened the season with five wins, then lost five straight, followed by another four-game winning streak. They lost three of the next four before closing strongly, winning eight of their last nine games--two streaks of four, naturally--going into the tournament.

Dominguez Hills, which did not lose more than two games in a row this season, overcame Cal Poly and its sellout home crowd of 3,339, described by Dominguez Hills Athletic Director Sue Carberry as “as loud as a crowd can get.” The Toros held Chambers to 4 baskets in 15 shots and the team to 20 of 64.

Cal Poly Pomona ho-hummed its way to another CCAA women’s basketball title and drew a bye in the first round of NCAA play.

The Pomona women (26-2) won two blowouts in the conference tournament as forward Debra Larsen was named Most Valuable Player despite injuring an ankle and playing the championship game against Cal State Northridge in a light cast. She had 27 points and 28 rebounds in the two games as the Broncos won by a combined score of 152-95. Freshman center Niki Bracken, who had a season-high 25 points against Northridge, was also named to the all-tournament team.

Pomona is off until March 10, when the Broncos play host to the winner of Saturday’s Chico State-Eastern Montana game.

The Pomona women figure to be well honored by the time the playoffs wind down. Larsen, a senior forward, was named CCAA Player of the Year. She and point guard Michele McCoy, also named to the All-CCAA first team, are among six nominees for the Champion Division II Player of the Year. Darlene May was named CCAA Coach of the Year.

Cal Poly doesn’t have the only hot women’s basketball team in Pomona. The Pomona-Pitzer women’s team will be making its sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament in a Western Regional game Friday at Cal State Stanislaus against Bishop College of Dallas. The winner will play the winner of the game between Stanislaus vs. Concordia of Minnesota on Saturday for the regional title.

Pomona-Pitzer, ranked seventh nationally, is 23-3 overall and won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with a 10-0 record. In the last five seasons, the team is 49-1 in SCIAC games.

The team is led by senior Regina Juniel, who is averaging 20 points, at forward and sophomore Laura Boyd at center. Point guard Melissa Barlow averages eight assists.

Azusa Pacific’s Christian Okoye closed out his collegiate athletic career by setting an NAIA record in the 35-pound weight throw at the NAIA indoor track and field meet in Kansas City. Okoye helped the Cougars finish second to Wayland Baptist, their best indoor showing ever, by throwing the weight 66 feet 5 inches and tying teammate Ade Alukoju for best shotput at 57-7.

Okoye may also have left his legacy by bringing Alukoju to Azusa this semester. The Nigerian freshman is similar to Okoye in size and apparently has similar talents in the strength events.

Okoye, whose college eligibility ended after the meet, finished with eight NAIA individual championships and 17 All-American listings, plus two All-American rankings in football.

Another local runner, Biola runner Mike Gaines, earned All-American honors by placing fifth in the quarter mile. It was his first competition running on the boards.