Former Hornet Veal Stings Chapman in Second Half to Lead Cal State L.A.

Cal State Los Angeles’ starting front line averages 6-8 and Chapman College’s tallest starter is 6-6, so it might seem as if the Panthers would have been in for a long evening at the Hutton Sports Center Friday night.

As it turned out, the Golden Eagles did beat Chapman, 78-71, in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. opener for both teams. But not before Chapman Coach Kevin Wilson proved to the 500 or so fans on hand that taller is not always better, at least not in this conference.

Wilson put in an offense-oriented version of that old staller’s standby--the four-corners--and let his three 6-2 starters take turns going one-on-one against taller Golden Eagle defenders.

Chapman (6-5) built a 10-point lead early in the second half, but Cal State L.A. (8-5) finally decided to get out of the way and let junior guard Sam Veal go one-on-one with the entire Chapman team.

Veal, who came in averaging 21 points a game, had only 5 at halftime. But he beat the Panther press single-handedly time and again after the Golden Eagles took the lead (60-59) with 6:21 to go. All Chapman could do was foul Veal. And that was a mistake.

The 79% free throw shooter didn’t touch the rim on eight straight one-and-one free throws in the final 2 1/2 minutes. Veal, a Junior College All-American from Fullerton College who would have ended up at Chapman if Coach Walt Hazzard had stayed, finished with 24 points.

“I wouldn’t change the game plan or the way we played if I could do it again,” Wilson said. “I thought we were more prepared than they were. We wanted to exploit their big guy who had to guard one of our quick guys.

“People think of this type offense as a delay tactic, but not the way we run it. I told our guys, ‘If you can get a shot in the paint (inside the key) every time, why run an offense.’ ”

Mike Kelly, who hit from just about everywhere on the court for a career-high 24 points, Jerry Ross, a junior jumping jack who went past everybody in a Cal State L.A. uniform for 16 points, and Wali Jones, son of the former NBA star with the same name who had 11, got to have all the fun while the two Chapman big men on the floor stood in the corners and watched.

“They did a fine job turning our height advantage into a negative,” Cal State L.A. Coach Jim Newman admitted. “But we were getting the ball to Sam (Veal) down the stretch and all they could do is foul him . . . and he’s the wrong guy to foul.”

The Golden Eagles shot 69% at the line, making 24 of 35, while Chapman, which came in shooting 74%, managed to sink just 21 of 38.

“Three things beat us tonight,” Wilson said. “No. 1 was the difference in foul shooting. No. 2 was the fact that we had Kelly, Jones, (Johnny) Williams, (Karl) Cato and (Mike) Brennan foul out. And No. 3 was that two guys in black and white showed up. Those two absolutely killed us.”