Sitton Pretty : CSUN Forward Needs 34 Points to Become School’s Top Woman Scorer

Denise Sitton isn’t quite sure how it happened. She was just minding her own business as a blue-collar member of the Cal State Northridge women’s basketball team when her name suddenly started to appear in the record books.

She earned the school rebounding record by the end of last season. Next to go will be the school career scoring record. That should fall this weekend when CSUN plays California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games against Chapman and Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Yet this record run has all the makings of a trivial pursuit.

“It’s kind of a joke within the team,” Sitton said. “I think my teammates just want me to get it over with.”

Not that Sitton’s second march to the record books has hurt the team.

“It’s not something anyone talks about,” CSUN Coach Leslie Milke said. “It’s taken for granted that it’s going to happen. She’s going to break the record unless we bench her.”

That isn’t likely to happen. Sitton, a 6-1 senior forward, is averaging 18.2 points a game to lead CSUN, which opened the conference season last weekend with a pair of losses.

Sitton is 33 points from tying Paula Moran, who scored 1,264 points from 1975 through 1979. Sitton ranks third on the all-time CCAA list behind Vickie Mitchell of Cal Poly Pomona (1,560) and Leone Patterson of Chapman (1,614).

Sitton should pass Moran at Cal State Dominguez Hills on Saturday night--unless Moran, now a CSUN assistant, can stop her.

“I’ve talked it over with Leslie, and when she gets within two points, we’re going to sit Denise down and say she has an attitude problem,” Moran said.

But seriously, folks.

“Actually, I hope she has two really good games because we really need her scoring,” Moran said. “Right now, the record is nice but it’s almost secondary to her playing well. We really need what Denise can do on offense.”

Which is, in a word, score. Even though Sitton is making only 42% of her field-goal attempts this season, that hasn’t stopped her from ringing up the highest average of her CSUN career.

Said Sitton: “I’m usually in the right place at the right time. I manage to get the points, but it’s not necessarily fancy.”

Or pretty.

“Everytime she shoots the ball, it’s a different way,” Moran said. “It might not look good, but they go in.”

Darlene May, coach of defending NCAA Division II champion Cal Poly Pomona, said she doesn’t care how Sitton scores. Her only concern is that it happens.

“She doesn’t really do everything mechanically correct, but the ball goes in,” May said. “That’s the bottom line on the score sheet. You don’t write down how they did it.”

Sitton began playing basketball at age 10 when she found that no one teased her about her height on the court.

“Sports did so much for my life,” she said. “I was 5-8 when I was 13 and I was teased a lot. It seemed like sports was the one thing that made my height seem like I was lucky instead of something to hide.”

Sitton was an all-league basketball and volleyball player at La Sierra High in Riverside. And although college recruiters were paying attention to her as a basketball player after she averaged 20 points and 16 rebounds a game as a senior, Sitton wanted to keep playing volleyball, too.

“I always had more fun playing volleyball than basketball in high school,” she said. “Basketball was more intense, but it was also something I could never give up.”

Basketball was also her scholarship route to college. Sitton had offers from Division I schools, including Fresno State and Nevada Las Vegas, but chose CSUN because, she said, “I wasn’t interested in going out of state. And Division I is so much pressure. I wanted to have fun and go somewhere that I could play without sitting the bench.”

Sitton did no sitting at CSUN.

“She was probably the first player we really recruited hard,” said Milke, who was an assistant to Judith Brame, CSUN women’s athletic director, at the time. “We really went after her.

“Obviously, she wound up making a big impact on our program. She’s been the keystone to the team ever since we recruited her.”

As a freshman, Sitton averaged 8.2 points and 5.8 rebounds on a team that was 16-10.

After the season, however, she worked out with the women’s volleyball team and was prepared to play both sports. But she broke her right hand during a spring volleyball practice, which was all the excuse Milke, the new coach, needed to ban Sitton from playing both sports.

As a sophomore, Sitton averaged 14.1 points and 10.3 rebounds a game. CSUN, however, finished 8-19, prompting Sitton to begin intense workouts in preparation for her junior season.

But two weeks into the 1984-85 season, Sitton snapped the anterior cruciate ligaments (under the knee cap) in her left knee and redshirted.

“I was in great shape, but then I blew my knee out and it was like, ‘What do I do now?’ ” she said. “I didn’t realize how much of my life was associated with being physically active.”

Neither did Milke.

“I think that when she sat out that year, it made her more appreciative of being able to play,” Milke said. “She’s been more dedicated since.”

Sitton’s dedication paid off with All-CCAA honors last season, when she averaged 11.9 points and 7.9 rebounds for a team that was 20-9 and a win away from advancing to the NCAA Final Four.

Her return also illustrated that she is more than just an offensive player.

“Denise’s roles have changed over the years she’s played here,” Moran said. “Some years we’ve needed her to score, and others we’ve needed her to play a good all-around game because we had some good offensive power.”

Said Sitton: “I’ve always been a pretty good scorer, but once I got to college, particularly last year, I wasn’t needed to score 20 points a game. It depends on my role. This year I’m needed to score more.”

If Sitton can rebound a little more, she might move closer to yet another record. She is third on the CCAA’s all-time rebounding list with 800, trailing only Patterson of Chapman (900) and Mitchell (1202).

Averaging 8.9 rebounds a game with nine regular season games remaining this season, Sitton will have a shot at passing Patterson for second place before her career ends in late February.

She is growing tired of talking about records, however. Moran has needled her plenty about setting the scoring record in fewer games (Moran played 79 games in her CSUN career; Sitton has already played 96).

Sitton, who will begin teaching physical education at a high school after graduation in May, would prefer to just savor what is left of her basketball career.

“I only have six or seven weeks left, which is kind of sad. It’s kind of depressing to think about it ending.

“I guess I could go on and play in Europe, but I’m not really interested in that. But I’m not ready to quit. I just want to stop and enjoy what’s left.”

HOW SHE RATES DENISE SITTON’S STANDING AMONG CSUN AND CCAA CAREER LEADERS

CCAA SCORING

1. Leona Patterson Chapman 1983-86 1,614 2. Vickie Mitchell Cal Poly Pomona 1983-86 1,560 3. Denise Sitton CS Northridge 1982-87 1,231 4. Jann Martin CS Los Angeles 1982-84 1,195 5. Donna Hammond-Mares UC Riverside 1982-83 1,186

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE SCORING

1. Paula Moran 1975-79 1,264 2. Denise Sitton 1982-87 1,231 3. Pee Wee De La Riva 1978-81 1,117 4. Tracey Burns 1978-80 929 5. Leslie Milke 1975-79 910

CCAA REBOUNDING

1. Vickie Mitchell Chapman 1983-86 1,202 2. Leone Patterson Cal Poly Pomona 1983-86 900 3. Denise Sitton CS Northridge 1982-87 800* 4. Shandra Trower CS Dominguez 1982-83 712 5. Zetta Hurt CS Los Angeles 1982-85 701

*CSUN career rebound record