SportsScope : Bronco Cagers Open New Era Under Coach Bollwinkel

The Cal Poly Pomona men’s basketball team will play its first game under new Coach Dave Bollwinkel against San Francisco State at 8 p.m. Friday in the opening round of the annual Bronco Classic Tournament at Kellogg Gym.

In the other first-round game of the four-team tournament, Azusa Pacific opens its season against Sacramento State at 4 p.m. Friday. The winners meet for the title at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Bollwinkel, an assistant at San Jose State the last five years, said the fast break will be an integral part of his team’s strategy. He called the Broncos “a team that will provide a racehorse style generated by an aggressive defense.”

Pomona will play shorthanded until Dec. 11 when guard Bill Dobbs becomes eligible. Dobbs, a 6-1 senior, led the Broncos with a 14.7 scoring average last year.

Two other standouts for the Broncos are senior guard Darron Suttle (5-10), who averaged 9.9 points and 3.3 assists last season, and senior forward Terry Stevens (6-4), who averaged 11.3 points and 5 rebounds. The Broncos also figure to start juniors Forrest Barnes (6-5) and Tony David (6-6) on the front line and junior Galen Dedmon at guard.

Azusa Pacific has high expectations. The Cougars, 15-18 last year, figure to be led by 6-8 senior center Bill DesRochers and 6-0 senior guard Dan Scott. DesRochers averaged 17 points and 7.8 rebounds last year and Scott 13.1 points.

Other key players should be junior forward Sam Brown (6-7) and senior forward Roger Gutierrez (6-4). The Cougars will also benefit when two excellent transfers become eligible in December. Junior Mark Moses, 6-4, comes from United States International University and 6-5 junior Victor Wharton from Rancho Santiago Community College.

After finishing second in NCAA Division II last year, the Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team opens its season against Cal State Hayward at 6 p.m. Friday in the first round of the Bronco Classic Tournament at Kellogg Gym.

With seven freshmen on a 12-player roster, it will be one of Coach Darlene May’s youngest teams. But the Broncos, who lost to the New Zealand national team (65-55) in an exhibition last week, have several key players from a team that finished with a 29-3 record.

The leaders figure to be 6-2 sophomore center Niki Bracken, 6-1 junior forward Marcine Edmonds, 5-8 senior guard Paula Tezak and 5-5 junior guard Cathy Gooden. Bracken averaged 14.5 points and 7.7 rebounds last year and Tezak 8.1 points and 8 rebounds.

Pomona also has promising newcomers: junior forward Susan Luckinbill, a 5-9 transfer from Grand View of Iowa; freshman guard Carrie Egan, the CIF Southern Section 3-A player of the year at Brea Olinda High last year, and freshman forward Kelly Connelly (6-1) from Bakersfield North.

With its best teams in school history, Cal State Los Angeles will be among the top teams in the NCAA Division II men’s and women’s cross-country championships Saturday at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville.

The women’s 5,000-meter race starts at 10 a.m. and the men’s 10,000-meter at 11.

The Golden Eagles are ranked No. 2 in the women’s division and No. 3 among the men. The women may have problems unseating five-time defending Division II champion Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but men’s Coach John Tansley is optimistic about his team’s chances of defeating defending champion Edinboro State of Pennsylvania and second-ranked South Dakota State.