CSUN Women Fall to Pomona in CCAA Final

The California Collegiate Athletic Assn. decided to jump right into the mainstream of college basketball this season by organizing its own postseason tournament.

As far as tournaments go, the one staged Friday and Saturday by the CCAA went pretty well. Nearly 3,000 fans packed the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Main Gym for the men’s game, and the women’s games also drew pretty well.

But, as it turned out, the whole thing proved to be a waste of time for the women’s teams involved.

Cal Poly Pomona, which had finished first in the conference during the regular season with a 12-0 record, won the tournament championship here Saturday night by disposing of Cal State Northridge, 69-61, in the final.

Pomona Coach Darlene May wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea of having to travel all the way here to prove what her team had already proved in the past by going 57-2 and capturing five straight CCAA titles.

“It stinks,” she said. “We feel we won the conference by going 12-0, but they don’t recognize that. If we didn’t win this game tonight, we wouldn’t have been acknowledged as the conference champs. The best team is determined by 12 games played through a whole season, not by just two games.”

The Broncos, however, didn’t need to win the tournament to be invited to appear in the NCAA Division II West Regional on March 11 at Pomona. The defending national champions were already in.

The top five teams in the NCAA’s national poll were given automatic berths. Pomona (26-3) has been ranked No. 1 since the start of the season.

Northridge, ranked 14th in the nation and second in the West Region, has not yet been assured of a berth in the three-team regional, which will begin Saturday at a site yet to be determined.

The Lady Matadors, however, are expected to be officially invited sometime this afternoon. UC Davis, the top team from Northern California, is also expected to receive word today about the other bid.

Northridge is enjoying its best season ever. It had posted a 19-8 mark and has not lost more than two games in a row.

One thing has hampered the Lady Matadors, though--their inability to beat the Broncos. The loss was their 21st straight to Pomona.

They are looking forward to the prospect of meeting the Broncos again for another chance at revenge. The Lady Matadors have given Pomona, which has not lost to a Division II team this season, two pretty tough games.

“And that’s a great sign for us,” sophomore forward Regan O’Hara said. “They have to be worried about us now. Every time we play them, we learn a lot more about them. When I first played them, I thought they were devastating--like female Lakers. But now we know they are just plain old regular people.”

The Lady Matadors looked all too mortal themselves in the first half, committing 20 turnovers. Pomona turned them into a 30-22 halftime lead.

Northridge scored the first six points of the second half to cut the difference to two points.

The Broncos pulled away to 10- and 12-point leads, and even enjoyed a short 16-point advantage. But Northridge always came back.

“We could have put it away a few times,” May said. “But every time we were in a position to do that, we went cold from the floor.”

Northridge Coach Leslie Milke said that she thought the Broncos were going to pull away.

“Yeah, I felt it two times,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘Uh, oh, here we go,’ But we came back every time and that’s encouraging.”

Northridge was never able to pull even, but trimmed the lead to two points on several occasions. The last time came with 11:17 left, when forward Denise Sitton hit a 15-foot jumper to make it 42-40.

Sitton led the Lady Matadors with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Teammates Lori Costello, Tara Flanagan and Renee Loch each scored 12 points.

The Broncos were paced by All-American center Vickie Mitchell, who scored a game-high 22 points and also had 12 rebounds. Forward Debra Larsen added 20 points and 10 rebounds.

In the last meeting between the teams, a 58-51 Pomona win Feb. 13, the Broncos played without the services of Mitchell for the entire second half. She was ejected late in the first half for flagrantly swinging her elbow at O’Hara.

She managed to control her temper Saturday night and dominated play from underneath the basket. She made 10 of her 17 field goal attempts, all of which came from within the key.

Still, May was not pleased with her team’s overall performance.

“It wasn’t one of our better efforts,” she said. “These are all pressure games, but it’s kind of hard for both us and Northridge because we both know we’ll both be playing in the regionals.”

That will happen March 11, assuming Northridge is invited to the regional and can get by its first-round game Saturday.

“We definitely want another shot at them,” O’Hara said.