Cal Lutheran Scoring Records Fall Like DeLaveaga Jump Shots

Records seem to tumble with practically every Steve deLaveaga jump shot that falls through the net.

Tuesday he became only the fourth player--and the first junior--in Cal Lutheran history to score more than 1,500 points. His 20 in an 89-85 Kingsmen victory over Cal Baptist gave him 1,517 in his three-year career and helped keep Cal Lutheran (11-10) in a first-place tie with Azusa Pacific in the Golden State Athletic Conference. Both teams are 6-1 in conference play.

DeLaveaga has led the Kingsmen in scoring in 20 of 21 games and he has scored 30 or more eight times. He scored a high of 42--another school record--against UC San Diego in January. The 6-4 forward is averaging 28.3 points a game in conference games.

“It’s more meaningful that we’re winning and enjoying ourselves,” deLaveaga said. “I try not to think about records because if you do, it gets out of perspective. The only record we’re worried about is winning a little more.”

Close encounters: The Northridge volleyball team, which has lost three matches in a row, will try to gain its first win in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. on Saturday night when the 11th-ranked Matadors travel to USC to play the third-ranked Trojans.

Northridge (3-7, 0-2) has played well most of the time in its conference losses to Hawaii and Pepperdine but has not been able to sustain that level of play.

“Pepperdine was beatable,” CSUN outside hitter Robert Samuelson said. “But when it came down to being close, they had the experience to push ahead. You have to learn to win when it’s close or you’re not going to win many games, especially in a league that’s as balanced as this one is this year.”

Spike from the mike: Todd Steward doesn’t set, spike or block for the fourth-ranked Pepperdine volleyball team, but as the school’s public-address announcer he plays a pivotal role in firing up the team and the crowd at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Steward, a senior, has been the school’s announcer for three years. In Pepperdine’s WIVA match against CSUN on Tuesday, Steward punctuated many of the Waves’ blocks with the phrase “Malibu R-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-fing Company.”

Other Stewardisms include “Pepperdink!”, which follow successful floaters over the net.

“He’s great to have around because he gets us going,” said Mark Root, a freshman middle blocker from Chatsworth who had a hitting percentage of .833 (10 of 12) against CSUN. To the delight of the crowd, most of the kills were followed up by Steward with “Mark Ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-t.”

Silence is golden: Cal State Northridge was shooting only 61.9% from the free-throw line before last week’s games against Cal State Bakersfield and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but Coach Pete Cassidy refused to panic.

“I don’t like to dwell on the negative,” he said. “It only makes things worse.”

Cassidy instructed his team to continue with the same free-throw drills, hoping the poor percentage would correct itself with practice.

So, with nothing said, the Matadors went out and made 43 of 58 from the line in two games. That’s 74.1%.

Doing without: Eric Menzies, a sophomore guard for The Master’s College basketball team, is ineligible to play in the Mustangs’ next five games because he is not carrying enough units for the spring semester.

Coach Randy Stem said Menzies dropped a class and was left with only 10 units, two short of the NAIA minimum of 12.

Menzies missed Master’s game against Grand Canyon in Phoenix last Saturday. The Mustangs (7-15, 4-6 in District III play), lost their fifth in a row, 89-67. He is the third Master’s player to miss games because of ineligibility.

The Mustangs played without starters Rocky Shipes and J. T. Thompson earlier in the season. Shipes missed four games and Thompson missed seven before they were reinstated.

Looks were deceiving: Things looked pretty bleak for the Cal State Northridge women’s basketball team going into last Saturday’s game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Its opponent was undefeated in three conference games and the Lady Matadors were playing without the services of Vicki Mallett, the team’s top scorer, and Joy Ridout, a reserve.

So all Northridge did was play one of its best games to win, 71-62.

“That was a very important game for us,” Coach Leslie Milke said. “We had to have that game or fall in a hole.” The victory evened Northridge’s record in CCAA play at 2-2. The Lady Matadors are 8-10 overall.

Bridgette Ealy, CSUN’s leading rebounder, became a point guard against San Luis Obispo in place of Mallett and responded with a solid game.

“She’s so quick she gets a lot of steals and does real well defensively,” Milke said, “but she’s not a point guard. We like her more at forward. She’s capable of scoring more points.”

Streak-busters: Shelmarie Tatum, a junior forward for Master’s women’s basketball team, leads the NAIA District III in scoring (17) and rebounding (13). Deanna Mincks, a freshman forward, is second in team scoring with a 12-point average and she also averages 8 rebounds.

Tatum and Mincks helped Master’s snap a four-game losing streak last week and move back into contention for a playoff berth.

The Mustangs (10-9, 3-6 in District III play) need to finish among the top six teams in district and have a .500 record in NAIA games to earn a playoff berth.

The Mustangs need a win against Cal Lutheran tonight to have a chance at making the playoffs.

Master’s point guard Kelli Pattison will miss the rest of the season. Pattison, a 5-6 sophomore, underwent surgery Monday to repair a torn ligament in her left knee that she suffered Jan. 19 in a game against Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Title tilt: The Moorpark College women’s basketball team can improve its chances of clinching its first Western State Conference title in six years by defeating Cuesta tonight and Glendale on Saturday.

Karina Hardman, a sophomore forward, scored a game-high 35 points to lead Moorpark to its eighth consecutive conference win, 80-69, over Hancock on Saturday. Hardman, who averages a team-high 25.3 points, has scored 20 points or more in 14 of her past 15 games.

Moorpark (16-10, 8-0) defeated Ventura, 76-63, last week for its first victory against Ventura in two years.

SCC leaders: Dametra Johnson, a sophomore forward for the Valley women’s basketball team, is averaging 27.9 points a game to lead the Southern California Conference in scoring.

Sophomore guard Bernadette Tillis leads the conference with an average of 13.6 assists and Ruth Aguilar is No. 1 in rebounds at 12 a game.

Overdoing it: Debbie Dickman, who pitched Cal State Northridge to a Division II softball national championship last season, will not take part in the Lady Matadors’ scrimmage against Moorpark on Friday and might miss the team’s opener against Cal State Fullerton on Feb. 16.

Dickman, an All-American as a freshman last season, suffered shin splints she has attributed to jumping too much rope during conditioning drills.

Staff writers Mike Hiserman, Gary Klein and Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.