Notebook : Quirk Costs Toros Home-Court Edge in CCAA Cage Meet

A quirk in the league’s complicated tiebreaker rules sent this weekend’s California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournament to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. But it is no quirk that Cal State Dominguez Hills tied Cal Poly for the regular-season title and received the top seed for Friday’s 2:30 p.m. opener against Chapman.

The Toros went into the last day of the schedule tied with UC Riverside and played host to Riverside on Saturday. Given the importance of that game, the Toros and Highlanders may have produced the most exciting game ever played in the campus gym.

It was certainly one of the best-played. In the double-overtime thriller won by the Toros, 65-62, both teams totaled only 14 turnovers. The Toros had only five. Dominguez Hills Coach Dave Yanai, in his 10th year at the helm, called it “one of the best games I’ve been associated with.” Yanai said scouts from the National Basketball Assn. and European teams who were on hand said the same thing. “They told me they haven’t seen a better game, or a better-played game, in a long time.”

The Toros held a slim lead with seconds remaining in regulation, but Riverside’s Anthony Holt threw in a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer to produce a 45-45 tie. Near the end of the first overtime Riverside held the advantage, but Toros guard Vico Nomaaea returned the favor. Nomaaea, who had missed a foul shot that would have put the game away with eight seconds left in regulation, banked in a three-pointer to send the game into a second extra period. The Toros then took control, outscoring Riverside 8-2 and hanging on.

The Toros’ tough man-to-man defense was probably the key against Riverside, which led the race until the last night. The Toros held Riverside to 35% shooting accuracy from the field.

The victory not only gave Yanai a portion of his second CCAA championship but his second 20-victory season. It had to be a satisfying result after last season’s frustrating 8-19 record, when Yanai was breaking in a number of freshmen and Nomaaea was ineligible.

This season Yanai got all the parts in place and meshed them successfully. Forward William Alexander has had a player-of-the-year-caliber season, leading the conference in scoring, shooting 57% and becoming the CCAA’s career scoring leader. Senior guard John Nojima emerged as a solid point guard and rediscovered his long-range shot, ranking among conference three-point leaders. Nomaaea added an outside threat and ball-handling skills the team lacked last year. Sophomores Tony Akins and Anthony Blackmon improved through the conference wars. And senior Brian Edwards and freshman Mike Rudberg were solid front-court backups.

Despite the fine season, the team still has a task. The winner of the CCAA tournament receives the automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. The Toros might receive an at-large bid without winning the tourney, but Yanai isn’t counting on it. “Our attention is to get the kids focused on the next game,” he said. “Sometimes the coaches get focused, but the kids are still euphoric from the last game. Even after the game Saturday I tried to get the kids calm, convince them we begin the second season right now.”

Yanai would have liked to play host for the tournament, which ended up going to San Luis Obispo because Cal Poly’s women’s team had a better record than Dominguez Hills’. As long as the Toros can’t play the tourney at home, they would like to keep traveling for a while.

Three San Pedro power lifters did so well at the recent U.S. Power Lifting Federation national meet that they did most of their heavy lifting getting the trophies home from Kansas City.

In the 165-pound class, Jeffrey Moore took first place overall with a three-lift total of 1,310 pounds. He also set weight class records with a squat of 512 pounds and a dead lift of 535. Since the meet was a first-time “natural” (drug-free), those marks are considered national records. Moore, 22, set six national weight class records and was named best lifter at the meet for the lighter weight divisions.

Nick Burich, competing in the heavyweight (220-pound) class, took first in his division with a total of 1,620 pounds. His 634-pound squat and 386-pound bench press were weight class records, as was his total (add in a 600-pound dead lift). At 21, Burich was the youngest competitor to win a national title.

Anthony Maleta, 19, competing in the 181-pound teen-age class, came up with a three-lift total of 1,278 pounds and set a record with a 308-pound bench press.

The three are now training for the American Drug-Free Power Lifting Assn. state championships April 11 in Fremont. That meet will qualify top finishers for the ADFPA nationals this summer.

After a year as women’s volleyball coach at El Camino College, Monica Krpan has resigned to pursue a business career and the school has reached into its alumni file for a replacement. The new coach is Mary McLaughlin, a North Torrance High graduate who played for El Camino in 1980 and went on to play at New Mexico State. McLaughlin earned All-Metropolitan Conference honors in 1978 and helped lead the Warriors to a second-place finish in the state. She and Krpan were teammates that season.

McLaughlin has coached at Rolling Hills High for the last two seasons. She will continue to coach the South Bay Youth Volleyball Club and teach a volleyball class at South Bay Adult School.

Under Krpan, El Camino won the South Coast Conference title last fall and was ranked second in the state. The team has been a perennial state title contender over the last decade.

Around the Horn: Guard Ken Horton of Cal State Los Angeles has set a freshman basketball school record for steals. The first-year player out of Westchester High had 32 steals in the first 21 games, breaking the five-year record set by another South Bay product, Patrick Lombard of Serra High. Horton also has 62 assists, the second-best season total by a freshman at Cal State L.A.. . . . Mike Wnek of Biola University earned All-NAIA District III honors in helping lead the fourth-ranked Eagles to a 26-1 record. Wnek is a guard out of Bishop Montgomery High. . . . Former Loyola Marymount basketball star Forrest McKenzie, who has been playing for Pensacola in the Continental Basketball Assn., is back home in Los Angeles after suffering a broken ankle.