College Division / Mitch Polin : Cal State L.A. Women Hoping Slow Start Brings Fast Finish

Over the last 2 seasons, frustration has become an all-too familiar feeling for the Cal State Los Angeles women’s basketball team.

The Golden Eagles thought they played well enough to earn a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s Division II playoffs in each of the last 2 seasons, only to be passed over by the Western Regional selection committee.

Two years ago, the Golden Eagles had a 19-9 record--one of the best regular-season marks among Division II teams on the West Coast. But they couldn’t compete in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament because, according to NCAA rules, they played 1 too many regular-season games. Because they had to miss the tournament, they were not considered for the NCAA playoffs.

Last season, Cal State L.A. finished with a 16-12 record and placed second to national power Cal Poly Pomona in the CCAA tournament, but missed out again.

Coaches Fran Buckless hopes this is the year her team makes the playoffs. The Golden Eagles (12-8 overall) are tied for second with Cal State Northridge at 3-1 despite a bumpy start.

“We’ve had a lot of adversity, but I think we’ve gotten stronger because of it, and we’ve been able to overcome it,” Buckless said.

The Golden Eagles played 11 of their first 13 games on the road. They played top 20 Division II teams such as Alaska Anchorage, twice, Air Force, West Texas State and West Georgia, and Division I Fresno State and Colorado State in nonconference play.

“We’re hoping that in the long run, that’ll pay off for us when we go to the (CCAA) tournament and I think it will,” she said.

Cal State L.A. had a 4-6 start that also can be traced to illness and injuries.

The most serious came just before the start of the season, when starting forward Tina Slatinsky underwent an emergency appendectomy and missed the first 11 games.

Also, forward Lori Thompson missed 3 games with a rib injury; swing player LynnDee Fader probably is out for the season with a stress fracture in her foot, and guard Millie Junio and forward Sandra Acosta have played despite recurring injuries.

Guard LeeAnn Horner was leading the Golden Eagles in scoring before she left the team in late November because she was homesick. Also, Frank Candida, the school’s sports information director who was close to many of the players, died on Nov. 18.

“We were on a road trip at the time (in Alaska) and that really hit us hard,” Buckless said. “ . . . We’ve dedicated this season to him.”

The Golden Eagles have played particularly well since the start of January, winning 6 of 7 games.

The resurgence is partly due to the return of Slatinsky, who has averaged 11.5 points in 11 games, and the addition of forward Trisha Maly, a former Pepperdine starter who has averaged 13.9 points since joining in early January.

“We have a strong bench and we feel confident that we won’t have any let-up when we go to it,” she said. “ . . . We can go 9, 10 and 11 deep. In our last game (a 77-68 victory over Chapman), we used our whole bench and everyone except one played played at least 10 minutes.”

Buckless said she has seen considerable improvement in Thompson, a freshman, and center Diane Williams, a sophomore, and has been comfortable with the rotation of Anita Martinez, Krystall Cade and Junio at guard.

Senior center Lupe Quintana has averaged 14.7 points and 10 rebounds.

Considering that he led College Division schools in the Southland in scoring last season, it is no surprise that guard Steve deLaveaga of the Cal Lutheran men’s basketball team is the top offensive player again.

The 6-4 senior, who averages 25.7 points, has scored in double figures in 74 consecutive games over the last 3 seasons since his streak started with 31 points against Cal Poly Pomona on Dec. 9, 1986.

During the streak, he has scored 20 or more points 51 times, 30 or more on 22 occasions and 40 or more twice.

He does not have enough games remaining in his career to catch the all-time NCAA leader, Lou Stevens of Widener University in Chester, Pa., who scored in double figures in 104 consecutive games.

Chapman College announced last week that it will drop men’s and women’s track, men’s and women’s cross-country, men’s volleyball and women’s tennis from its athletic program at the end of this school year.

Chapman, which was considering a move to the NCAA Division III Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, will remain in the Division II California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

College Division Notes

UC Riverside’s men’s basketball team is ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division II for the first time since the 1978-79 season. The Highlanders (16-2) were ranked No. 4 last week but moved up to No. 1 after the three top teams lost.

Lupe Quintana of the Cal State Los Angeles women’s basketball team became the all-time California Collegiate Athletic Assn. leader in rebounds with 13 against Cal State Dominguez Hills last week. That gave Quintana 474 and pushed her past Vickie Mitchell, former Cal Poly Pomona All-American who had 465. . . . Since splitting its first 4 games, the Cal State Los Angeles men’s basketball team has dropped 14 straight and its CCAA losing streak grew to 20 with a 93-68 loss to Chapman last Saturday.

Punter Trent Morgan of Cal State Northridge was named to the NCAA Division II All-American first team by the National Weekly Football Gazette. Morgan, an All-Western Football Conference pick, punted 59 times for 2,546 yards and a 43.5-yard average last season. Center Greg Jordan of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a 6-1 senior considered the team’s top blocker the last 3 seasons, was chosen to the NCAA Division III All-American third team.