Men’s Basketball Playoffs : Saddleback, Long Beach Look for a Turnaround

Saddleback and Long Beach colleges both come wobbling into the Southern California Regional men’s basketball playoffs tonight.

Saddleback (17-11), which lost in the state final last season to Ventura, has lost three straight and five of its last seven. Long Beach (19-13) lost its final two games in the South Coast Conference.

Saddleback finished in a tie for third with Orange Coast and Long Beach finished fifth.

“We hope we are going to get things straightened out,” said Bill Brummel, Saddleback coach. “We saw some things that gave us some encouragement in the last few games.”

Most of Brummel’s optimism has come because of the improved health of freshman guard Joe Hudson.

Hudson, who has been bothered by a sore back most of the conference season, scored a career-high 26 points in last Saturday’s 85-77 loss to Rancho Santiago.

Vincent Smalls leads Saddleback in scoring (15.9 points a game) and rebounds (8.8). Hudson (12.2 points) is the only other Saddleback player in double figures this season.

“We need to get a third and a fourth involved in our scoring,” Brummel said. “So we are turning to John (Waikle) and Renny (Ingram).”

Ingram, a sophomore guard, averages 9.3 points a game, and Waikle, a sophomore center, averages 8.7 a game.

The winner will meet top-seeded El Camino (28-3) Wednesday in a second-round game. El Camino has a first-round bye.

In other first-round games, all at 7:30 p.m.:

San Bernardino Valley (16-14) at Rancho Santiago (23-7)--Rancho Santiago is led by freshman center Alonzo Jamison, the Orange Empire Conference most valuable player. Jamison averages 19.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. Kenny Ammann, a sophomore guard, averages 20.7 points and is an 83% free-throw shooter. The winner plays the winner of the Golden West-Los Angeles Harbor game Wednesday.

Golden West (15-15) at Los Angeles Harbor (19-9)--Golden West is making its first playoff appearence since the 1983-84 season. Golden West is led by Markus Muller-Stach, a freshman forward who averages 18 points a game. Jim Stewart, a sophomore forward, leads the team with 6 rebounds a game and averages 10.7 points.

Orange Coast (18-14) at Chaffey (16-13)--David Miles leads OCC with 18.1 points a game, which was second best in the Orange Empire Conference. Miles led the conference in rebounds with 10.2 a game. The winner plays at Cypress Wednesday.

Grossmont (13-14) at Fullerton (18-12)--Fullerton, one of three teams to beat El Camino this season, is led by Troy Joseph, a sophomore forward averaging 21 points a game. The winner advances to play at Imperial Valley (27-5) Wednesday.