Broom Becomes an Empty Symbol as Chapman Loses to UC Riverside

To properly emphasize the importance of this weekend’s schedule to his players, Chapman College basketball Coach Kevin Wilson brought a broom to Panther practices all week.

Wilson’s not-so-subtle message: We need a sweep.

“I even thought about bringing it out to the bench for the game,” Wilson said, “but I didn’t want somebody stopping me at the door thinking I was a janitor.”

Instead, Wilson left his prop propped up in a corner of the team’s meeting room, where it soon became an empty symbol.

There will be no Chapman sweep this weekend. The Panthers lost to UC Riverside, 87-80, Friday night before about 400 fans at Hutton Sports Center and now, the broom is set to fall on Chapman--brushing away any hopes for a postseason tournament berth before the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. opens its second half of play.

The Panthers, who play at Cal Poly Pomona tonight, are 5-13 overall, 2-10 in their last 12 games and 1-5 in conference. The top four teams in the final CCAA standings qualify for the conference tournament, which means Chapman is in trouble. The Panthers are tied with Pomona and Cal State Northridge for last.

Riverside is also tied--at the other end of the scale. The Highlanders are 5-1 (15-4 overall), giving them a share of the CCAA lead with Cal State Los Angeles and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

So this latest Chapman setback could hardly be considered surprising. The only upset was the manner in which the defeat was delivered.

For once, Chapman, The Team That Couldn’t Hold a Lead, did the falling behind and the coming back. After surrendering 16 straight points to Riverside late in the first half and trailing by as many as 15 (55-40) in the second, the Panthers were finally forced to play catch-up.

And catch up they did.

They simply couldn’t sustain once they got there.

Chapman went on scoring spurts of 9-2 and 12-2 to forge a tie at 63-63 with 10:53 remaining. The Panthers even led briefly--the last time at 73-72 with 5:39 left--but ran head-on into a wall known as fatigue.

Relying uncharacteristically on the fast break, Chapman ran and ran until it broke down.

“We ran the fast break more often tonight because of the opportunities there,” Wilson said. “They have three big guys up front who we feel we can beat down the floor.

“So, we turned it into a track meet. We got some baskets off it, but there’s a side effect. It also makes you tired.”

Once the Highlanders survived the shock of the situation--yes, they had blown a 15-point lead--they settled down just in time to finally put away the puffing Panthers.

Riverside’s Andre Greer scored first from long range and then under the basket to give the Highlanders an 82-76 advantage with 1:20 left. At that point, Chapman had its last gasp.

Panther guard Wayne Briggs scored on a pass from Jon Samuelson, cutting the deficit to four in the final minute. But while defending on the following inbound play, Briggs reached over the baseline and touched the basketball that Riverside’s Robert Jimerson was trying to put into play.

Automatic technical foul. Two shots to the Highlanders, plus possession.

With 56 seconds left, Paul Kapturkiewicz sank both shots, virtually clinching the victory for Riverside.

“That was a big play,” Riverside Coach John Masi said. “Otherwise, they might have gotten another steal and cut the lead to two with a lot of time left.”

Said Wilson: “It was a four-point play. Again, it’s one of those little things that costs us. If you could take a videotape of the game and cut out about 60 seconds with a pair of scissors, we win the game.”

But because the Panthers don’t own editing privileges, this one went down as their third straight loss--despite 23 points from Samuelson and 20 from guard Mike Kelly.

Wilson is right: The little things that continue to plague Chapman. One turnover here, one technical foul there.

And game after game, the Panthers continue to have problems sweeping them away.

Broom or no broom.