Golden West Still Having Troubles

For Golden West College basketball Coach Jim Greenfield, the 1984-85 season has been nothing short of a nightmare.

The Rustlers still haven’t won a game. Their last victory was in December in a nonconference game against Glendale, and since then, Golden West has lost a school-record 13 straight games in addition to about half of its roster, which is now down to six players because of illness and injuries.

A bad case of the flu has sidelined guard Mike Love for tonight’s South Coast Conference game between Golden West and Cypress at 7:30, making the host Rustlers even bigger underdogs than usual.

“After a while, you just get numb about these things and don’t let them bother you,” said Greenfield, after learning that Love would be unavailable.

Love joins forwards Marc Lorigan and Steve Hutson on the disabled list. Last week, Lorigan, Golden West’s leading scorer with a 20 points per game average, suffered a broken jaw in an altercation following a minor auto accident. Lorigan’s jaw was wired shut, and he will be on a liquid diet for two months. Hutson, meanwhile, suffered a broken ankle and, like Lorigan, is expected to be out for the remainder of the season.

Last-place Golden West (0-12 in conference and 7-18 overall) suffered its latest defeat Wednesday at the hands of Orange Coast, 74-54. Cypress (5-6, 11-10) lost to Saddleback, 60-50, Wednesday and is fighting with Orange Coast, Compton and Saddleback to make the postseason Shaughnessy playoffs.

In other South Coast Conference games tonight: Fullerton (8-3, 14-10) is at Saddleback (5-7, 15-11), Orange Coast (6-6, 15-11) is at Santa Ana (2-9, 10-14) and Cerritos (11-1, 20-4) plays at Compton (5-6, 10-12). Mt. San Antonio (10-2, 23-3), which was upset by Compton Wednesday, is idle.