CLU’s DeLaveaga Shoots to Forget

Like most good shooting guards and ball hogs, Steve deLaveaga this month found himself having to reaffirm this basketball axiom: If you lose your touch, keep shooting.

In Cal Lutheran’s first five games, DeLaveaga (pronounced Da-LAH-vee-ah-ga) was expanding basketball’s meaning of the word brick. Going into Tuesday night’s game against Cal Poly Pomona, the 6-4 sophomore had made 13 of 52 field-goal attempts. Take away his season-opening performance--33 points against West Coast Christian--and he was on a 3-for-34 skid.

This caused concern for Coach Larry Lopez, who considered DeLaveaga to be the Kingsmen’s main scoring threat. He had led CLU in scoring as a freshman and now this was his team.

Not coincidentally, while DeLaveaga’s shots weren’t sinking, Cal Lutheran was. The Kingsmen lost three of four.

“I had a bad game at Cal State Dominguez Hills,” DeLaveaga said. “That’s when it started. Instead of learning from it and forgetting about it, I carried it with me the next three games. It was horrible.”

After taking a solitary walk through Kingsmen Park--a small, wooded area on the CLU campus--DeLaveaga regained his shooting touch. He took 14 shots against Pomona on Tuesday, making 11, including two three-point goals, and finished with 31 points in the Kingsmen’s 96-95 win.