Small Colleges / Alan Drooz : A Win Is Still a Win for Hamlow

With more than 550 victories behind him, another win or two wouldn’t seem to be a big deal to basketball Coach Cliff Hamlow at Azusa Pacific. But three victories that led to the title in the Point Loma tournament last weekend left Hamlow nearly ecstatic.

Hamlow has the most victories of any coach on the NAIA level, but it had been awhile since he had seen one. The Cougars, playing a tough December schedule, lost 10 in a row before the tournament. After losing its Golden State Athletic Conference opener last week to Southern California College, a school official said the team was “about as low as a team could get.”

A week later, everything is sunny again in Azusa. At Point Loma, the Cougars defeated Schreiner College of Texas, then edged previously undefeated Biola, 54-50--their first victory over Biola since 1980--and beat Point Loma, 76-52.

“The win over Biola was a big one,” Hamlow said. “For them to come in 12th-ranked, undefeated, and us struggling, and to knock ‘em off, is a big one.”

The Cougars (7-12) have another accomplishment in mind for tonight when they play Westmont College, to whom they have lost 10 straight. The Cougars haven’t beaten Biola and Westmont in the same season since 1973-74, when they went to the national tournament.

Hamlow hopes the weekend success doesn’t result in a letdown.

“I’ve had a theory down through the years--I hope I’m proven wrong--it’s very difficult to get back up emotionally after winning a tournament championship,” Hamlow said. “But with the struggle we’ve had to put something in the win column, I think the guys will be ready.”

Junior center Bill DesRochers, who ranks in the school’s top 10 in most categories, leads Azusa Pacific with a 17-point average. Senior forward Alex Adams is right behind at 16.3. But it was the guard play of junior Danny Scott and the emergence of senior Michael Long that propelled the Cougars in the tournament.

“If we can keep that balance, we can create some problems for people,” Hamlow said.

Scott scored 52 points in the three games, earning most valuable player honors. Long, a starter last season, started for the first time this season and averaged 14 points and 9 rebounds in earning all-tournament honors.

Hamlow says the team’s record is somewhat deceptive because of the difficulty of the team’s schedule, which has included Division I and Division II teams. Of the first 19 opponents, 17 have records totaling 115-21. Six of the 12 losses have been by six points or fewer.

With a laugh, Hamlow says he sometimes questions the sanity of the early schedule he put together, but he also says it is beginning to pay off. “It became a matter of would this team lose its confidence or get a couple good wins and begin to build.”

Lucky Eleven: Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Biola University won their first 11 games. In a four-game streak around New Year’s Day, the men’s team scored 444 points, including a school-record high of 126.

The Eagles (14-1), who hadn’t scored 100 points in a game in two seasons, are averaging 82 and are outscoring opponents by an average of 15. Forward Johnny Griffin is averaging 22.5 points and ranked in the nation’s top 20 scorers in December. Griffin also leads the team in rebounding and is shooting 66%.

The women, 12-3 and rated 14th in the country in the NAIA, are led by Lisa Jones and Mary Beth Nelson, who are both scoring more than 17 points a game and shooting better than 56%.

Lisa Terry, a 5-9 forward at Southern California College, broke her nose seven minutes into a basketball game recently against Chapman College, but the injury barely slowed her down.

After a quick tape job, she reentered the game and scored 12 points by halftime.

She finished with 26 points (10 of 18 shots), 7 rebounds and 6 assists. The senior from British Columbia leads the Golden State Athletic Conference in scoring with a 19.5 average.

Starting conference play, three players in the CCAA were shooting better than 50% from the three-point line, and four more were higher than 45%.

Guard Karl Finley of Cal State Bakersfield was the most accurate, making made 9 of 16 for 56%, but guard John Nojima of Cal State Dominguez Hills was the most prolific at 31 of 65 for 48%.

Cal State Los Angeles’ Marty Heede, a 44% three-point shooter, sparked a 73-70 victory against Lubbock Christian by sinking three in a row as the Eagles rallied from a late 10-point deficit. Heede was 6 for 10 for the game.

Small College Notes Azusa Pacific will be represented in Friday’s Sunkist indoor track meet by Innocent Egbunike in the men’s 500 and Irat Bakare in the women’s 500. Cal State L.A.’s Sylvia Mosqueda will compete in the women’s 1,500. . . . Cal State Los Angeles could be a factor in the CCAA basketball race with the return of 6-8 James Stewart and 6-7 Cary Brooks to the lineup. Both starters last year were ineligible the first semester. . . . Cal State Northridge’s basketball team is without forward Pat Bolden for about five weeks because of a knee injury. He is the team’s third-leading scorer. . . . The Cal State L.A. women’s basketball team took a school record-tying eight-game win streak into conference play. . . . Azusa Pacific landed three football players on the first team of the NAIA All-American team--running back Christian Okoye, nose tackle Rod Price and offensive tackle Dave Bumstead.

Bob Moore, SCIAC water polo player of the year from Claremont-Mudd, was named a third-team All-American. The water polo All-American team is picked irrespective of NCAA divisions. . . . Gayle Deisinger, Cal Poly Pomona volleyball player, was named a College Division Academic All-American, one of 36 selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. The 5-11 sophomore has a 3.73 grade-point average in computer information systems.