Daniels makes NCAA debut
The following are updates on local athletes at the collegiate level.
DeAndre Daniels (Renaissance Academy) freshman, Connecticut men’s basketball: Daniels logged two minutes of court time in his NCAA Tournament debut, which saw the defending-champion Huskies suffer a 77-64 loss in the second round to Iowa State on Thursday.
The former Wildcat, who transferred to Taft as a junior, didn’t register any statistics in the loss, but did manage to make an impact on the team this season.
Daniels started 12 of the 31 games he appeared in, averaging three points and 2.1 rebounds in 12.1 minutes per night, while also totaling 18 blocked shots, 15 assists, 12 three-point field goals and 11 steals.
UConn finished 24-10 on the season after advancing to the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament and entering the NCAA Tournament as the ninth seed in the South Regional.
Yumi So (Crescenta Valley High, 2009) junior, USC women’s swimming: The No. 7-ranked Trojans entered the final session of the 2012 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday night at Auburn’s James E. Martin Aquatics Center tied for third with Arizona with 226 points.
So’s top contribution of the weekend was a 26th-place showing in the 200-yard butterfly prelims in a season-best 1 minute 57.49 seconds on Saturday morning after she placed 25th in the 100 butterfly prelims in 53.22 and 26th in the 100 backstroke prelims in 53.40 on Friday.
Defending champion California (311) is in first with Georgia second (247). USC placed third last season.
Lonnie Kauppila (Burbank High, 2010) sophomore, Stanford baseball: The Cardinal are midway through a two-week span without a game, which may have the unintended effect of cooling off one of the hottest teams in college baseball.
Stanford, ranked No. 2 in the nation, had won five in a row heading into its 1-0 loss to fourth-ranked Rice on Sunday, in which the former All-Area Player of the Year went one for two at the plate to bring his season average up to .291.
Kauppila, who has moved to shortstop from second base this season, has also collected four doubles, a triple and seven runs batted in, while scoring 11 runs and maintaining a .925 fielding percentage.
Stanford (13-2) resumes play on Saturday at home against USC in the beginning ofPac-12play.
Anthony Stover (Renaissance Academy), sophomore, UCLA men’s basketball: Stover played 10 largely uneventful minutes of the inaugural Pacific-12 Conference Tournament, which saw the Bruins (19-13) advance to the second round, where they suffered a season-ending 66-58 loss to Arizona on March 8.
Stover, who transferred to Windward from Renaissance in 2008, appeared in 27 games for the Bruins this season and averaged 8.6 minutes per game. He led the team in blocks with 39 and averaged 1.6 rebounds per game.
Hector Harold (Renaissance Academy) sophomore, Pepperdine men’s basketball: Harold played just seven minutes in the Waves’ season finale, a 76-54 loss to the University of San Diego in the opening round of the West Coast Conference Tournament on March 1. Aside from a pair of fouls, he recorded no stats.
On the season, Harold, who transferred from Renaissance in 2008, averaged 3.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 14.2 minutes per game, while helping Pepperdine to a 10-19 record.