Pomona-Pitzer Cagers Will Seek Final-Four Spot in Wisconsin

Pomona-Pitzer College will be shooting for a spot in the final four of the NCAA Division III women’s basketball championships when it visits St. Norbert of West De Pere, Wis., in a quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. (CST) Saturday.

The Sagehens, who won the Western Regional last week, are 27-1--the best record in the school’s history--and St. Norbert is 23-2.

Pomona-Pitzer, coached by Nancy Breitenstein, is looking for its first trip to the final four since the 1981-82 season, when it finished third.

Breitenstein said this team may have more depth than the 1981-82 squad. The leaders are 5-6 senior guard Shontel Sherwood and 5-7 junior guard Libby Gates. Sherwood averages 12.6 points and 5.4 assists and Gates 10.8 points a game.

“Shontel Sherwood showed the versatility that made her the MVP of our conference (the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference),” Breitenstein said. “The first night (of the regional) we needed her scoring and she had 20 points, and the second night we needed her passing more and she had nine assists.”

Other top players are 6-0 junior center Nora Seager, 5-8 senior forward Camille Landsgaard and 6-0 senior center Jill Apperson.

Pomona-Pitzer defeated Concordia of Minnesota, 69-59, in the first round of the regional and beat Cal State Stanislaus, 61-47, in the final. St. Norbert advanced with an 83-81 victory over Wisconsin Whitewater.

Sherwood, a transfer from USC, Gates and Seager were named to the conference all-star first team. Landsgaard made the second team.

Other first-team players are 5-9 sophomore forward Julie Curtis of Whittier, a former Wilson High standout who averaged a conference high of 26.4 points and 11 rebounds; 5-4 junior guard Michele Wetzler of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and 5-8 sophomore Kelly Collins of La Verne, a former standout at Walnut High.

The Cal State Los Angeles men’s basketball team, which tied for second with Cal State Dominguez Hills in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., has placed one player on the all-conference first team and another on the second squad.

The first-team selection is 6-3 guard Sam Veal, a junior from West Covina who led the CCAA with a 22-point scoring average. Veal averaged 4.2 assists and made 50.5% of his field-goal attempts.

Junior center Tony Brown (6-9), who averaged 9.1 points and 8.3 rebounds, made the second team, and teammates Michael Cooper, a 6-1 senior guard, and Shawn Holliday, a 6-4 junior guard, earned honorable mention.

Cal Poly Pomona’s only representative is 6-6 senior forward Eddie Brown, who was named to the second team. Brown averaged 15.3 points and 6.9 rebounds to lead the Broncos in both categories.