COLLEGE BASKETBALL PREVIEWS : WOMEN : Players Are at a Premium : Lady Raiders’ Roster Already Depleted by Three Major Losses

The Moorpark College women’s basketball team suffered its biggest loss two months ago, well before the season started.

Debra Rabin and Michele Brown, starting guards last season, were injured in a car accident.

Rabin, who averaged 15 points a game as a freshman, injured her hip and also needs arthroscopic knee surgery. She will redshirt this season.

Brown needed therapy for neck and back injuries but was ready for Moorpark’s season opener last week.

“Rabin is a real big loss for us,” said Gary Abraham, Moorpark’s coach. “She was our outside threat.”

Moorpark also will be without sophomores Michele Marcione and Kelly Sloan. Marcione, the starting center, quit the team after last season. Sloan, the backup center, is academically ineligible.

Only seven players are currently working out with the team. Christina Ornalez and Kristie Sterbens will play after volleyball season ends.

“We’re kind of thin now,” Abraham said. “Our three sophomores are going to have to carry us this year.

The three are Brown, forward Carol Kellick, and Karina Hardman, who was first-team All-Western State Conference last season.

Hardman scored 33 points in Moorpark’s 83-64 loss to to Valley College last week. She averaged 18 points a game last season to lead the team.

Hardman, who coached for two seasons at Royal High before playing for Moorpark, helped the Lady Raiders (18-10) to a 10-2 conference record and second-place finish in the WSC. Moorpark’s only two conference losses were against conference champion Ventura.

The Lady Raiders lost to Cerritos, 59-58, in the state playoffs.

Valley, which plays in the Southern California Conference, also has three starters back from last season’s team that shared the conference title with Trade-Tech.

Valley finished 25-5, 10-2 in conference games, and advanced through the Southern California regional playoffs before losing in the state playoffs.

Coach Doug Michelson will replace Jim Stephens, who has moved over to coach the Valley men’s team. Michelson, 45, has coached high school and college basketball for 20 years. He was coach of the Hart High boys team for five years.

Sophomores Dametra Johnson and Bernadette Tillis, both first-team all-conference choices last season, lead Valley’s offense.

Johnson, 5-10, averaged 20 points a game last season and Tillis, a 5-4 point guard, paced the Monarch running game. Traci Atkins was a part-time starter as a freshman.

“We try to get the ball to Tillis on every possession,” Michelson said.

Michelson thinks he has bolstered Valley’s lineup with his first recruiting class. Ruth Aguilar, a 5-10 center out of Lincoln High in Los Angeles, was the 3-A Division player of the year last season.

Roxanne Owens, a 5-8 forward, was recruited out of Crossroads High along with Tevis Anderson, a 5-7 guard from Culver City High, and Shagarro Lattin, a 5-9 forward-center from Birmingham High.

“Trade-Tech is generally the team to beat, but I think we’re one of the favorites in conference,” Michelson said.

At Canyons, Randy Yamanouye takes over a Cougar team that finished last in the WSC’s Southern Division last season. Canyons was 3-17, 2-9 in conference play under Coach Frank Wright, who was not rehired after last season.

Yamanouye, 28, has a team of seven freshmen. He canceled Canyons’ first two games to give his team more time to prepare.

“I know it’s not going to be that great of a season,” Yamanouye said. “I’m down, but I try not to let my feelings show. Sometimes, I go to practice and there are only a few girls there.”