SportsScope : Top-Seed Toros Take On Chapman in CCAA Cage Tournament Opener

Cal State Dominguez Hills, top seeded in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournament, will face Chapman College in the first round at 2:30 p.m. Friday. The tournament will be played at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which tied the Toros for the CCAA title at 10-4. In the other semifinal, Cal Poly plays UC Riverside (9-5) at 8:30. The winners play at 8:30 p.m. Saturday for the title and an automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

Dominguez Hills goes into the tournament with the best overall record, 20-7. Cal Poly is 18-9, Riverside 19-8 and Chapman 15-13. The Toros clinched the top spot by beating UC Riverside, 65-62, Saturday in double overtime. The Toros beat Chapman twice this season, most recently 80-59 at Chapman, and have won six straight against the Panthers.

The victory gave Toros Coach Dave Yanai his second 20-win season and the team’s first CCAA title since 1981. Forward William Alexander leads the Toros and the CCAA with a 21.1-point average, 21.9 in CCAA games. He finished the season with a clutch of conference records, including points in a season (571) and career (1,719). Sophomore Tony Akins is averaging 11.8 points and sophomore Vico Nomaaea 10. The Toros’ staunch defense held Riverside to 35% shooting Saturday. The Toros have held opponents to 43% for the season and are 15-3 when they have held teams to 45% or below.

Loyola Marymount University will play at the University of San Diego on Saturday night in the first round of the West Coast Athletic Conference basketball tournament. League champion San Diego, a 20-game winner riding a 12-game streak, is clearly the WCAC’s best team. Loyola finished in last place in the WCAC. The Lions lost a double-overtime game two weeks ago against San Diego. The winner of the game advances to the tournament semifinals in San Francisco.

Loyola Marymount’s baseball team, ranked third in the nation in both major polls behind Texas and Florida State, plays a three-game series at Fresno State starting with a 7 p.m. game Friday. They will play 1 p.m. games Saturday and Sunday. The Lions, 12-2, had a rare triple-header victory Saturday against U.S. International University, winning a suspended game from the day before, then sweeping a double-header and outscoring the Gulls, 31-9. The Lions’ hottest hitters are freshman utility man Miah Bradbury (.476), utility man Don Sparks (.436, 11 RBI), catcher Jim McAnany (.419, 13 RBI) and third baseman Chris Donnels (.340, 4 HR, 14 RBI). Freshman reliever-spot starter Darryl Scott is off to a 4-0 start with a 1.21 earned-run average.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team will play home games against Azusa Pacific today and Cal State Long Beach on Friday. Both begin at 2:30 p.m. The Toros travel to Cal State Fullerton for a 1 p.m. game Saturday. The Toros, playing a large percentage of their games against Division I opponents, entered the week with a 6-4 record. Outfielder Fred Hanker has hit in all but one game and leads the team with 11 runs batted in. He won one game with a late-inning grand slam and KOd Cal State Long Beach last week with a two-out ninth-inning double. He also had the game-winning RBI against UC Irvine.

The Loyola Marymount women’s basketball team will close its season with home games at 7:30 tonight against Santa Clara and 7:30 p.m. Friday against the University of San Francisco. The Lions are 4-21 and have lost 10 straight games. Guard Sylvia Bauer leads Loyola with a 12.3-point average. USF has clinched the West Coast Athletic Conference title and is led by Teri Hunt, who leads the WCAC in scoring (20.8) and rebounding (12.2).