Orange County College Basketball : Polk Hits Free Throws for Chapman

Karan Polk connected on a one-and-one with nine seconds remaining to lead Chapman College to an 80-77 season-opening victory over Eastern Montana Saturday in a nonconference game at Billings, Mont.

Polk’s free throws gave the Panthers a 78-77 lead seven seconds after Kathy Devlin hit two free throws to give Eastern its first lead of the game.

Chapman led, 42-34, at halftime and by as many as 12 points in the second half.

Valarie Hartsfield led Chapman with 22 points. Susan Bergendahl added 20 points for the Panthers, and Polk scored 13 points and had five assists.

In other women’s nonconference action:

Occidental College 73, Southern California 68--Kelly Stephenson scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Occidental at SCC. Connie Brazell scored 24 points for SCC.

In men’s Christ College Irvine tournament championship:

Christ College 85, Life Bible 81--Robert Palotta scored 22 points to help Christ College win its tournament for the third straight time. Mike Updike scored 34 points for Life Bible.

In the third-place game:

Pacific Christian College 83, Caltech 68--Burton Lalk scored 26 points and Ken Osness added 23 to lead the Deacons. Caltech’s Ed Zanelli led all scorers with 32 points. With the victory, PCC improved to 3-3.

In the fifth-place game:

Wassuk College 95, Cal Maritime 94--Marvine Langford scored 31 points to lead Wassuk.

In men’s nonconference action:

Southern California 88, San Bernardino 76--Jeff Stephens scored 30 points to lead SCC at San Bernardino. SCC (1-0) plays host to Pacific Christian Tuesday.