SPORTSCOPE : Loyola Women Open Basketball Season at Home Saturday

The Loyola Marymount women’s basketball team will open its season at home Saturday agains Eastern Illinois University. The game beings at 5 p.m. as part of a men’s-women’s doubleheader. The Loyola women, coming off their best season (17-11), return four starters led by all-conference center Tricia Gibson and guard Kristen Bruich, and scoring leader Lynn Flanagan at guard. Eastern Illinois returns three starters from a 16-12 club led by all-conference guard Barb Perkes and 6-foot-3 center Laura Mull. Eastern Illinois has had 11 straight winning seasons and appeared in the NCAA playoffs in 1988.

El Camino College has been chosen to play host to the California Community College men’s and women’s soccer championships Dec. 1 and 2. The women’s championship game, to be played Dec. 2 at 10 a.m., pits Orange Coast College and Cosumnes River College. The men’s semifinals will be held at 6 and 8 in the evening Dec. 1, with the championship game to be played at 1 p.m. Dec. 2. The four men’s teams have yet to be selected.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills women’s basketball team, under second-year Coach Van Girard, plays West Texas State at 6 p.m. in a preseason tournament at Cal State Los Angeles tonight. The host Golden Eagles play Johnson C. Smith College at 8. The winners play Saturday for the championship.

Ascot Raceway in Gardena closed out its season Sunday with the annual Turkey Night Grand Prix. The quarter-mile track will start its final year of racing in late February. The raceway, near the intersections of the San Diego, Harbor and Riverside freeways, is scheduled to close permanently in November, 1990, when its lease runs out. The land, owned by a Japanese firm, is scheduled to become a business park.

Enrollment is still being taken in Marine Cano’s winter soccer camp or George Wing’s winter baseball camp at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Both events will be held the week of Dec. 18 to 22. For more information call 516-3893.

Another of Pop’s All-Pro baseball/softball camps will be held Dec. 26 to 29 at the Lunada Bay Little League fields. The staff includes Alex Manila of the Queen and Her Court touring softball team, Ken McMullen, former Dodger third baseman; pitcher Tim Leary of the Cincinnati Reds, first baseman/outfielder Franklin Stubbs of the Dodgers and El Camino College softball pitching coach Jim Reynolds. The cost is $175. For more information call 373-3805.

Torrance is taking registration for a winter youth basketball program. The event is open to resident boys and girls in kindergarten through eighth grade. Sign-ups take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 2 and 9 at the city recreation office, 3031 Torrance Blvd. A fee of $16 is required. Call 618-2930.

A group of boys from Redondo Beach Region 34 of the American Youth Soccer Organization will play a series of games with Mexican youth teams Saturday at Ensenada.

The Gamblers, a co-ed slow-pitch softball team from Redondo Beach, failed to defend their 1988 title in the Mexicana Silver Cup, settling for the bronze medal in the A Division. The tournament was played in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California, and included 21 teams.

The Gamblers, who opened the tournament with three straight wins, defeated Rocky Mountain of Alberta, Canada, 6-2, in the bronze medal game, avenging an 11-5 loss in the medal round. The Wildthangs from Seattle, who defeated the Gamblers, 6-3, in the medal round, and the Midgets of California, a 7-6 medal-round winner over the Gamblers, advanced to the gold-medal game. Seattle won, 15-3. The Gamblers’ Jim Thome of Lawndale, John Hansen of Carson and Mona Welsh and Lorraine Hollweg of Redondo Beach were named to the tournament all-star team.

According to coaches Hollweg and Jeffrey Babbitt, the Gamblers will probably skip the event next season but are considering playing in another international event, perhaps in Hawaii, in 1991. The team has declined an invitation from promoters to play in the European Cup next year in Holland.