SPORTS SCOPE : Mt. San Antonio Will Return to State Cage Playoffs First Time Since 1955

The Mt. San Antonio College men’s basketball team will make its first appearance in the state community college tournament in 30 years when it faces Fresno City College in a first-round game at 7:45 p.m. Friday at Selland Arena in Fresno.

The Mounties played Fresno in their last state tournament in 1955 and lost, 88-85.

Mt. SAC, coached by Gene Victor, is ranked No. 2 in Southern California and Fresno is No. 7 in Northern California. El Camino College of Torrance is the favorite in the four-day tournament that has 16 teams.

Mt. San Antonio, 27-4, has been led by 6-7 sophomore forward Larry Richard, a former Baldwin Park High standout who averages 16.7 points and 8.4 rebounds.

The front line also has 6-5 sophomore forward Ken Ramirez, who averages 12.5 points and 5.7 rebounds, and 6-6 freshman center Melvin Bailey, 10.7 points and 5.1 rebounds. Mt. SAC also starts sophomore guards Paul Leonard (6-1) and George Tarkanian (6-4), son of Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian.

Mt. SAC qualified for the tournament by defeating Fullerton, 66-54, in a Southern California Conference playoff game two weeks ago.

After winning nine of its last 10 games, the Cal Poly Pomona women’s softball team faces a tough test in a double-header against perennial national power Cal State Fullerton at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Pomona.

Pomona’s Broncos enter the game with a 14-4 record after sweeping a double-header with United States International University last week, 2-1 and 3-1.

“We hope we can hang in there against Fullerton,” said Shirley Topley, who is coaching the Broncos while Coach Carol Spanks is coaching a U. S. national team in Australia until March 19. “We are playing well right now. We’ve had some fine pitching and we’re starting to hit the ball.”

The Broncos have been led by solid pitching from Susan Claypool and Rhonda Wheatley, an All-CIF standout from Workman High in La Puente who has an 11-3 record and 0.31 earned-run average. Claypool is 3-1 with an ERA of 0.78.

Pomona’s top hitter is catcher Donna McElrea (.412), and she leads in runs batted in with 10. Another standout is right fielder Alison Stowell, who is batting .318.

For the second time in four seasons, Cal Poly Pomona’s Darlene May has been named California Collegiate Athletic Assn. women’s basketball coach of the year.

The Broncos finished with a 21-7 record, tied Chapman for the conference title at 11-1 and were ranked No. 8 in the NCAA Division II. May has compiled a 277-75 record in 11 years at Cal Poly, the best record in Division II history.

The Broncos have placed two players on the All-CCAA first team and another on the second team. First-teamers are 6-2 senior center Janine Phillips, who averaged 12.8 points and 8.3 rebounds, and 6-0 junior forward Vickie Mitchell, who averaged 11.6 points and 10.6 rebounds.

The second-team selection is 5-10 senior forward Sheri Jennum, who averaged 9.6 points and 2.4 rebounds.

Cal State Los Angeles, which finished 12-13, placed 5-9 junior forward Veronda Finley on the first team. Finley averaged 12.1 points and 7 rebounds. Senior center Zetta Hurter (6-0) earned honorable mention.

Pomona-Pitzer, Occidental and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps colleges, whose basketball teams finished in a three-way tie for third place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, have each placed one player on the first all-conference team.

The players are 6-2 senior Chris Kampe of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 6-6 senior Bob Ike of Occidental and 6-5 senior David DiCesaris of Pomona-Pitzer. DiCesaris was the top scorer in the SCIAC with a 19.5 average and Ike was second (15.5).

Each team also landed one player on the second team: senior Scott Pritchett (6-6) of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, sophomore Craig Kirkland (6-4) of Occidental and senior Doug Pendry (6-2) of Pomona-Pitzer.

DiCesaris was named to the first-team All-District West squad selected by the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches and Pritchett made the second team.