Notebook / Sean Waters : Rio Mesa’s Neder Adds to the Book of Marks

It takes more than one good scorer to make a girls’ basketball team successful. Consider Rio Mesa. Despite having the sixth-leading scorer in the state, the Spartans finished tied for sixth in the Channel League with a 3-11 record and were 7-17 overall.

Senior guard Jackie Neder scored 644 points in 24 games for a 26.9 average. She set a school mark for most points in a season, easily bettering Mitsie O’Brien’s mark of 426 points set during the 1985-86 season.

In two years, Neder has scored 945 points to finish second on the school’s all-time scoring list. O’Brien had 1,211 in four years on the varsity.

“Jackie is so quick, she generated 60% of her points on drives to the basket,” Rio Mesa Coach Zeke Jaquez said. “She’s the best athlete I’ve ever coached.”

Neder also had 67 assists, second on the school single-season list. Tami Hobson set the mark with 84 in 1986.

Catching up on more records: Marlo Cormier became the first girl to score 1,000 points in a career at Newbury Park. Cormier scored 1,030 to pass Chris Hagemann, who had 808 during the 1983-86 seasons.

Cormier also established a single-season school mark with 472 points, breaking Hagemann’s mark of 355 in 1985-86, and scored 35 points to set a record for most points in a game. Chris Singer set the previous mark of 30 in 1987.

Cormier, who has a 3.99 grade-point average, is being recruited by Oregon State, Pepperdine and St. Mary’s.

Record streak: The Santa Clara girls’ basketball team, top-seeded in the Division 2-A playoffs, has won 73 consecutive league games. The Saints’ streak ranks third in the Southern Section behind Riverside Poly (97 consecutive wins) and San Gabriel (80).

“I mention it to the players before every game,” Santa Clara Coach Tom McConville said. “No one wants to be responsible for ending the streak.”

The Saints (22-1, 10-0) beat Nordhoff, 61-35, in its final league game. Their two closest games were victories against Santa Ynez, 47-41 and 37-29.

Tough break: St. Bonaventure lost a crucial game to Oak Park and an opportunity to win the Tri-Valley League title. But the Seraphs lost something more important the next day--their top guard. Rich Slyker broke a bone in his right hand after punching a wall in practice.

“He had missed a layup and decided to slug protective padding behind the basket,” Coach Marc Groff said. “Unfortunately, the padding is four inches thick and it covers a concrete wall.”

Slyker led the team in assists (3.3 a game) and was second in scoring (12.2).

Nothing Magic about it: Mike Spears had Hueneme’s first and only triple-double of the season and it was a strange one. Spears had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 blocked shots last week against San Marcos.

Spears had 58 blocked shots in 14 games.

Title clincher: Ventura College was favored throughout the season to win the Western State Conference Northern Division men’s basketball title. What was surprising was the dramatic way in which the Pirates clinched the title.

Freshman Quentin Hollis stole the ball in the last 10 seconds and made three free throws with 1 second left on the clock to give Ventura a 75-72 victory over Oxnard College on Saturday.

Staff writer Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.