SportsScope : Cal Poly Women Cagers, CCAA Champs, Favored in Regionals

After winning its third straight California Collegiate Athletic Assn. post-season tournament last week, the Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team will be favored when it hosts the four-team NCAA Division II Western Regionals on Friday and Saturday at Kellogg Gym in Pomona.

The Broncos, 26-3 overall and ranked No. 2 in Division II behind West Texas State, will meet UC Davis (18-10), co-champion of the Northern California Athletic Conference, in its first-round game at 8:05 p.m. Friday. The other opening-round game matches 14th-ranked Alaska-Anchorage (23-4) against Chico State (19-9) at 5:45 p.m. Friday.

First-round winners meet for the regional title at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The regional winner will advance to the Division II quarterfinals next week.

Although Pomona is the solid favorite and the Broncos have reached the Division II finals three straight years, coach Darlene May is not looking past the regionals.

“I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” she said. “You don’t get this far unless you have a good basketball team. All four teams are very good.”

Pomona has already defeated two of the other three teams in the tournament this season. The Broncos beat UC Davis, 74-51, on Dec. 12 and Chico State, 72-58, on Dec. 16. Pomona also defeated Chico State for the NCAA Western Regional title en route to a second-place national finish last year.

Junior point guard Cathy Gooden (5-5), Pomona’s leading scorer with an 18.5 average, scored 17 points in the team’s first game against Davis. The Broncos have also been led by center Niki Bracken (6-2), forward Marcine Edmonds (6-1) and guard Paula Tezak (5-8).

Tezak, a senior, named CCAA player of the year last week, is averaging 5.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 7.0 assists. Bracken, a sophomore, is averaging 16.3 points and 7.1 rebounds and Edmonds, a junior, 14.9 points and 5.4 rebounds.

UC Davis will match Pomona with good size on its front line, led by 6-1 center Staci Stevens who averages 20.9 points and 10.1 rebounds. The Mustangs also feature 5-8 junior guard Laura Manning, who averages 10.6 points.

Cal State Los Angeles, which finished second to Cal Poly Pomona in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament last week, has placed one player on the all-conference first team and two on the second.

The first-team selection was 6-0 junior center Lupe Quintana; 5-10 senior forward Sue Doody and 6-0 sophomore forward Tina Slatinsky made the second team.

Quintana, who has led the CCAA in rebounding the last three seasons, averaged 11.3 rebounds and 15.3 points this year. She is the No. 3 rebounder in conference history and No. 5 among all-time scoring leaders at Cal State.

Doody and Slatinsky also had strong seasons for the Golden Eagles, who finished with a 15-13 record. Doody averaged 11.2 points and 7.4 rebounds, Slatinsky 12.6 points and 6.4 rebounds.

Conference champion Pomona placed guards Paula Tezak and Cathy Gooden on the first team and center Niki Bracken and forward Marcine Edmonds on the second. Tezak was named CCAA player of the year and Darlene May of Pomona was selected coach of the year.

In men’s basketball, guard Howard Loughridge of Cal State Los Angeles and center Tony Theisen of Cal Poly Pomona were named to the All-CCAA second team. Loughridge, a 6-3 senior, averaged 16.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists and made 87.2% of his free throws in conference play. Theisen, a 6-7 senior, averaged 15.2 points and 7.9 rebounds.

Off to its best start in school history, the Azusa Pacific University baseball team will visit Cal Lutheran in a Golden State Athletic Conference double-header at noon Saturday in Thousand Oaks.

The Cougars, who entered a non-conference game against La Verne on Wednesday night with a 14-2 overall record, are 1-0 in conference play. Cal Lutheran, one of Azusa Pacific’s top rivals for the conference title, entered the week at 8-6 overall and 2-0 in the GSAC.

Azusa Pacific may have had its most impressive performance of the season with a double-header win over NCAA Division I opponent Penn State, 7-6 and 3-2, last week. The Nittany Lions finished second in the Atlantic 10 Conference last season.