BASKETBALL : Former Crespi Guard Leaves UC Irvine Team

Jason Turner, a Times All-Valley guard at Crespi High last season, has left the UC Irvine basketball team for personal reasons, he said Wednesday. Turner is still enrolled at Irvine, but is planning to transfer.

Turner had made the traveling team, but had played only three minutes in three games this season. He will petition for a redshirt season.

“I wasn’t happy there,” Turner said. “But I left on good terms with the coach. It had nothing to do with playing time because the guys in front of me were definitely better.”

Turner played--or didn’t play--at Irvine behind senior guards Joe Buchanan and Scott Brooks.

“It had nothing to do with grades,” Turner said.

Cal State Northridge (1-7) finally managed to win its first game of the season, 71-58, over Cal State Hayward on Friday, but Saturday the Matadors suffered the latest in a string of indignities.

Northridge led San Francisco State, 42-27, with 14 1/2 minutes left in the game, but was outscored 30-2 over the next 11 minutes and lost, 68-55.

Cal Lutheran guard Steve deLaveaga has been named Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Week. DeLaveaga scored 31 points on 11-for-14 shooting in the Kingsmen’s 96-95 win over Cal Poly Pomona. He followed that with 22 points against La Verne on Friday. In the two games, he made 20 of 24 shots, had 10 rebounds and 4 assists.

Cal Lutheran will play the rest of its season without forward Lionel Boyce, who ran out of eligibility because of the NCAA’s 10-semester rule. The NCAA allows athletes four years of competition to be completed within a 10-semester time limit. Boyce averaged 11.3 points for the Kingsmen (4-3), including 21 and 18 points in his last two games.

CLU will add Scott Scarborough, a 6-8 center, to its roster. Scarborough quit the team last month, but decided three weeks ago to return. Coach Larry Lopez said the center from Las Vegas will be in uniform for Saturday’s game with UC Riverside.

Last out of the gate: Master’s College, an NAIA team, dropped to 0-9 with losses to Biola and Redlands last week. The Mustangs will be hard-pressed to get their first win this week. They play host to Division I Southern Utah State tonight at 7:30 and Division II Cal State Northridge on Saturday night at Bross Gym.

Valley College women’s basketball team lost a chance to avenge its only loss of the season--and a whole lot more--Friday in a 52-51 nonconference setback to Golden West at Valley.

The Monarchs lost the game on a desperation, 25-foot hook shot at the buzzer. Earlier, they lost returning first-team all-conference guard Maryjo Testa to a knee injury. Testa will have X-rays taken Friday and will be out indefinitely.

Valley (10-2) lost to Golden West, 74-56, earlier in the season.

Injury update: Julie Middleton, a senior starter on the Northridge women’s basketball team, missed Tuesday night’s game against Northern Colorado with a sprained ankle.

Coach Leslie Milke said Middleton is questionable for tonight’s game against Mankato State in the Northridge gym.