THE COLLEGES : Master’s Eagerly Awaits Arrival of ‘New Guard’

The Master’s College does not have a men’s basketball game scheduled for Dec. 18, but on that day the team nonetheless will make a three-point play.

That’s when three point guards--Melvin Adams, a 5-foot-8 freshman; Damon Greer, a 6-0 sophomore; and David Humphreys, a 5-11 freshman--will become eligible. When they do, one of the team’s thinnest positions suddenly will become one of its strongest.

Forgive Master’s Coach Mel Hankinson for pointing gleefully toward The Master’s home game Dec. 19 against California Baptist College.

“I think these three players are going to contribute significantly to our squad,” said Hankinson, adding that he is not worried about distributing playing time among the three newcomers and the two current point guards.

“I think that’s a great problem to have. I think the dimension this gives us is that we’re going to be able to play more man-to-man, full-court pressure. We’ll be coming at them in waves.”

Firing line: Pierce College is looking for a defensive coordinator.

After watching his team allow more than 30 points a game during a 4-6 season, Coach Bob Enger decided he had seen enough. He fired his top defensive coach two weeks ago.

“We just didn’t stop people as well as we should have,” Enger said.

So, Enger canned himself.

It is the second time in two seasons that Enger has removed himself from a key position. In 1988, only months after being hired to resurrect the Pierce football program after a two-year hiatus, Enger served as his own offensive and defensive coordinator.

Before the 1989 season, he was able to hire an assistant to coordinate the offense. Now Pierce has come up with enough money to hire a walk-on defensive specialist, allowing Enger to act more as an administrator of the entire program.

“I didn’t have enough time to do all the things that have to get done to form a winning football program,” Enger said. “This way, I’ll be able to set policy and procedure without being up to my neck in the mechanics of things.”

Sixties revival: Antelope Valley had a little ‘60s flashback when it won the recent Golden West basketball tournament.

The men’s team had not won a major tournament since winning its own tournament in 1968.

Guard Dedan Thomas was named the most valuable player at Golden West, becoming the first Antelope Valley player to be named MVP since guard Mike Adams was honored at the Antelope Valley tournament in 1968.

The team is also on schedule to reach a number of other milestones. The last time Antelope Valley posted a 20-win season was in 1982 (20-12), and the school record for victories was set in a 24-8 campaign in 1953.

Gathering himself: After shooting just 38.3% from the field in his first four games, Derrick Gathers broke out of his slump last week, hitting a combined 16 of 33 attempts against San Francisco State and West Texas State while scoring 21 and a season-high 28 points.

Guarded optimism: For the second week in a row, guards Roger Thomas and Sam Crawford of Moorpark College were named to an all-tournament team.

Crawford led the Raiders to the championship of the Mid-State tournament at Cuesta College and was named most valuable player. He and Thomas also were honored at the Moorpark tournament two weeks ago.

Wrestle-mania: With five wrestlers reaching state championship matches, Moorpark finished second, its best performance in the state meet.

Moorpark tied Cerritos for second with 79 points; Fresno City College won with 120 3/4. Moorpark’s previous best finish was fifth.

Only one Moorpark wrestler won a final, but all five earned All-American honors.

Delfino Ochoa (28-4) beat Brian Ramirez of Fresno, 5-1, for the 118-pound championship; Robby Cook (26-9) finished second at 134; Tony Flores (27-10) finished second at 177; and Carson Wollert (28-4) was second at 190.

Serge Mezheritsky (33-3) lost a 2-1 championship heartbreaker to Antonio McKee of Cerritos. McKee also beat Mezheritsky last year for the title, at 142 pounds, and dealt him two of his three losses this season.

Moorpark finished 11-1-1, won the Western State Conference and won the South-Central region.

Staff writers Mike Hiserman, Brendan Healey and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.