ANTELOPE VALLEY BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT PREVIEW : Host School Braces for Bakersfield

As pushovers go, the Bakersfield College basketball team is not a very good one.

Unfortunately for Antelope Valley College, Coach Newton Chelette did not know that when he was arranging the pairings for the 16-team basketball tournament that Antelope Valley will play host to beginning today.

Bakersfield (4-2), therefore, became the host school’s first-round opponent in a game that is scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m.

However, if the coach-slash-tournament director was to do it all over again . . .

“We probably wouldn’t be playing them,” Chelette said. “The decision was made well beforehand. But it’s too late to change now.

“I know one coach who did that, but I won’t. Like I’ve said all along, I like my team. I wouldn’t trade my guys for anybody’s.”

Chelette, who is in his first season as the Antelope Valley coach, has good reason to be confident. The team has won four of its first five games, the only loss coming against College of the Sequoias--a team that Bakersfield has defeated.

No matter, Chelette says. Antelope Valley is a team improving by leaps and rebounds.

“It’s still early, with all of our new faces and a new coach, it takes time,” Chelette said. “You see it in spots. And I like what I see. We’re starting to play well. We just need to develop some consistency.”

Joe Mantashigian, a 6-foot-5 freshman from Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas, leads the Marauders in scoring with a 14.3 average.

Danny Griffin, a 6-8, 210-pound freshman from Crenshaw, is averaging 12.6 points and 8.3 rebounds. He scored 30 points in Antelope Valley’s 108-93 victory over College of the Canyons on Saturday.

In the same game, point guard Dedan Thomas set a school record with 16 assists. Thomas is a freshman from Taft High who signed with Nevada Las Vegas but didn’t meet the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s minimum academic requirements.

Canyons, which led Antelope Valley at the half, will be looking for its first victory of the season in the tournament’s first game, at 8:45 a.m. against Barstow.

Valley (2-2) will play East Los Angeles in its first-round game at 10:30 a.m. Glendale (2-2) will meet Desert at 3:45 p.m.

Moorpark, the only Valley-area junior college not taking part in the Antelope Valley tournament, will play host to seven other teams in its own tournament beginning Thursday.

The Raiders (3-2) will open against Rio Hondo in a 7 p.m. game.

In other first-round match-ups, West Los Angeles will meet Citrus at 3 p.m., Oxnard will meet San Jose City at 5 p.m. and Ventura will take on Pasadena, the defending tournament champions, at 9 p.m.