BASKETBALL : It’s Better to Run Than It Is to Hide

Cal State Northridge Coach Leslie Milke didn’t say it in so many words. Why bother? Like any other coach, she lived with what got her there, and, yes, she died with it.

So went the Lady Matadors--blown out of their final against Cal Poly Pomona, 80-46, last Saturday in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. postseason tournament at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. So went CSUN career- and season-record-holding scorer Denise Sitton, held to nine points in her collegiate farewell performance.

Said Milke: “When you stop our inside game, you stop us.” What she didn’t say was that the Lady Matadors had just been stopped for the 27th straight time by Pomona.

Those numbers are enough to make a team run away and hide. Or, in the future, maybe it will at least be enough to make CSUN run.

Over the next three seasons, Milke will probably do just that. Gone will be the one-dimensional look dictated by Sitton’s presence.

The Dixon twins, Kathleen, a center, and Marianne, a forward, have shown an unusually good ability to run the floor for CSUN. Another hope for Milke is Kristen Brinkema. When the fast break fails, Brinkema, a sophomore reserve this season who possesses outside shooting touch, could be the answer from the outside.

That was Pomona’s winning formula.

Top gun: Sitton finished her career at Northridge with eight season and career records: career points (1,467), field goals (588), field-goal attempts (1,380), free throws (291), free-throw attempts (465) and rebounds (923).