JUNIOR COLLEGE NOTES : Nordquist Makes Call as Handicapper

Give Al Nordquist the crystal-ball award. The Moorpark College basketball coach has said all season that the Western State Conference basketball race would come down to the wire--and it has. Even at midseason when it looked like Glendale would run away with the conference’s Southern Division, Nordquist remained optimistic.

Sure enough, Moorpark, with wins over Canyons and Santa Monica last week, put itself in position to move into postseason play for the 17th time in 20 years.

Moorpark (6-6) will play host to Bakersfield (5-6) at 7 p.m. Thursday. If the Raiders win, they will enter the playoffs as the division’s second-place team. If the Raiders win and Glendale (7-5) loses, the teams will have identical records and both will go. And what if Moorpark loses?

“I don’t even want to think about it,” Nordquist said. “If we lose, then it depends on what happens between Bakersfield and Glendale.”

Bakersfield and Glendale play Saturday. If Moorpark loses, it could wind up in third place should Bakersfield beat Glendale.

The only sure way Moorpark can continue after the regular season ends is to win Thursday.

“It’s so close,” Nordquist said, “that you want to win the one game that will get you in. You don’t want to leave it up to somebody else losing.”

College of the Canyons also has a chance at the playoffs. The Cougars upset Glendale, 92-64, Saturday to stay alive. Canyons, however, cannot control its destiny.

“We’re just hoping for an at-large berth,” Canyons Coach Lee Smelser said. Seedings and at-large berths will be decided Sunday. To stay in the hunt, Canyons (5-7) needs a win at home against Santa Monica on Saturday and mercy from a coaches committee that will decide which teams get at-large berths.

“I’d like to think we could get one,” Smelser said. “The way we played against Glendale was the way we kind of thought we were going to play all season. We’re real happy right now. We started the week with renewed vigor.”

Nordquist agreed.

“I thinking Canyons is peaking right now,” Nordquist said. “We got Mitch McMullen in early foul trouble when we played Canyons. Then, we had them down by 11 at halftime and they came blasting back. If they had had McMullen, it may have been Canyons winning, 80-75, instead of us.”

McMullen is 6-10 and had 26 points and 18 rebounds against Glendale.

Said Nordquist: “Then they outscore Glendale, 31-2, in the last 11 minutes of their game on Saturday. That’s awesome . And we did a good job cutting down Santa Monica (66-37) last Saturday. I think we’re peaking, too. In fact, I think the teams that spent most of the season on the bottom might beat the teams on top. The teams that did not do well in conference will do well in the playoffs. And that will show how much parity this conference has.”

Which is what Nordquist has been telling everyone from the start.

Len Mohney knew the road to the state baseball playoffs would be long and difficult, but he didn’t expect it to take him to a hospital.

“I had some bad (abdominal) pains on Friday night,” said Mohney from his bed at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills. “On Saturday morning, I couldn’t bite the bullet any longer.”

He was admitted to the hospital Saturday but has yet to find out what ails him.

Tests have ruled out appendicitis and food poisoning, Mohney said Tuesday. He will undergo another test today.

“I’m still real tender,” he said. “I’m sure the test will figure it out. I don’t know what it is, but I do know that I’m not getting out of here before they find out.”

Assistant Andy Allensworth has taken over for Mohney. The Cougars will play Southwestern College of San Diego at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Rancho Santiago in the Stengel tournament, considered the most prestigious of its kind in California.

Mohney might be there.

“It’s going to be close, though,” he said. “On the other hand, I’m not going to be an idiot and go out there no matter what. Actually, if this has to happen, I’m glad it’s happening now, early in the season. On second thought, if it had to happen I wish it would have happened in November.”

Tailspin: Nobody told Saddleback it had to schedule a game against defending state champion Canyons. The Cougars romped, 8-1. But the guy who made the schedule, Saddleback Coach Marshall Adair, said: “Before the season, one of our objectives was to play the toughest teams we could. The only way to get tougher is to have the tough teams kick your ass.”

Add tourney: Adair, who prefers merciless competition for his inexperienced team, might derive satisfaction from the first-round pairings in the Stengel tournament: Saddleback will open with Cerritos, which has won 17 conference and seven state championships.

Short order: Freshman Jordan Cook, who quickly worked his way into a deep pitching rotation at Canyons, was impressive in his first start. Against Saddleback last week, in 6 innings, he struck out seven, walked three and gave up four hits. Cook, who last season played at Birmingham High, gave up one earned run, a home run to Saddleback’s Keith Hatch. He might continue to baffle batters, according to Mohney.

“We think Jordan’s a real gamer,” Mohney said afterward. “If he improved his practice habits, he’d be a lot better.”

And from Saddleback Coach Adair, “He’s the kind of kid who can get his breaking stuff over when the count is 3-2. He’s dangerous.”