Community Colleges : Waikle and Turner Lead Saddleback to 53-47 Victory

Saddleback College, playing without all-state forward Vincent Smalls, defeated Moorpark, 53-47, Friday night in the opening round of the Saddleback PONY Bowl men’s basketball tournament.

Smalls returned to Philadelphia because of the death of his father this week.

Saddleback was led by forward John Waikle and guard Jason Turner, a sophomore transfer from UC Irvine, who scored 11 points each. Joe Hudson added nine for Saddleback (3-1), which plays Pasadena in the final tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Tom Neumayr scored 17 for Moorpark (2-1), which plays Grossmont in the consolation game at 5:30 p.m.

In the College of the Desert tournament:

El Camino 82, Rancho Santiago 58--Charles White scored 23 points to lead El Camino, the top-ranked team in the state, to an easy victory in the opening round.

David Lee scored 19 and Kirkland Howling 18 also for El Camino (4-0).

Alonzo Jamison scored 16 and Ken Ammann 15 for Rancho Santiago (4-2) which trailed at the half, 45-24.

In nonconference games:

Cypress 96, Rio Hondo 59--Six players scored on double figures for Cypress (4-0) in a victory at home.

Karl Becker had 16 points and Jeff Green 14 for Cypress, which shot 65% (35 for 54) from the field and 82% (23 for 28) from the free-throw line. Jon Vranes (12), Kris Brodowski (11), Charles Caldwell (10) and Jim Sammon (10) also scored in double figures for Cypress, which led 43-30 at halftime.

Rio Hondo is 2-4.

Orange Coast 68, Mt. San Antonio 50--Reid Lukes scored 12 points and had 10 rebounds to lead OCC at home. Rob Mase had 15 and Dareck Crane 13 for OCC (4-2).