THE COLLEGES : Point Guards Deliver Sharp Performances

Antelope Valley (14-5) and Moorpark (12-5) have compiled the best records among Valley-area men’s basketball teams largely because of a pair of record-setting freshman point guards who believe it’s better to give than receive.

Dedan Thomas of Antelope Valley and Sam Crawford of Moorpark came out of high school with glowing credentials, and both have already set school single-game assists records and are on pace to shatter season records as well.

Thomas, an All-City Section 4-A Division selection at Taft High, set an Antelope Valley mark with 17 assists against San Diego Mesa and is averaging 10.2. With 163 assists in about half a season, he ranks fifth on the school’s all-time single-season list and is only 39 short of Mike Thompson’s record of 202 in the 1976-77 season.

Should Thomas maintain his pace, he’ll shatter the season record for assists in a game (6.7) by nearly four. The only benchmark for Thomas’ performances is Crawford’s exploits.

Crawford, a Westchester High graduate, has 155 assists in 15 games and should break Jim Amico’s school record of 284 set in 1976-77. Crawford, like Thomas, has already set a school single-game record of 19 assists.

Their excellence has not gone unnoticed. Crawford was the Most Valuable Player of the Midstate tournament at Cuesta College, and Thomas earned the same honor at the Golden West tournament as both led their teams to championships.

Rising star: It’s been a disappointing season for the UC Davis men’s basketball team, but senior Tom Neumayr is leading the Aggies in scoring after playing only 13 minutes a game last season.

A standout at Thousand Oaks High and Moorpark College, Neumayr is averaging 14.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists a game after averaging 5.8, 1.5 and 0.8 as a junior.

The left-handed guard scored 19 points in Davis’ 69-68 victory over Cal State Northridge on Friday night, 15 in a 87-59 win over Dominican College on Tuesday and is shooting 50% from the field.

“Tom has been a stabilizing influence both on and off the court for this team,” first-year Coach Lonnie Williams said. “We’re in a transition period. This is basically a new team from last year and Tom has really developed into a leader.

“He’s not a rah-rah type of guy, but he’s a quiet leader. He leads by example. He doesn’t say much to the other guys. He just goes out there, game after game, and gets the job done.”

That’s been especially important because the Aggies have lost four of their five starters from last season.

All of which has left the door open for Neumayr.

Playing the odds: Though Davis’ victory over Northridge snapped an eight-game losing streak and enraged Matador Coach Pete Cassidy, Williams figured it was about time.

After all, the Aggies had played--and lost to--three other teams in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., of which Northridge is a member. Davis lost to CCAA teams Chapman (90-80), Cal Poly Pomona (81-80 in overtime) and Cal State Bakersfield (61-55) before beating Northridge.

“We’re 2-9, but we could easily be 7-4 or 8-3,” Williams said after Davis beat Northridge. “We’ve just had some bad breaks in some close games.”

Lost weekend: After losing their second and third game in a row to Davis and Cal State Sacramento on Friday and Saturday, Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy wanted nothing more than to fly home Sunday and start regrouping for Wednesday night’s game against Biola.

But even that was asking too much as the Matadors’ noon flight to Burbank was canceled because of heavy fog at the Sacramento airport, and they had to wait five hours for the next flight.

Statwatch: Derrick Gathers led Northridge in scoring and rebounding in both games last week.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound senior from Philadelphia had 18 points and nine rebounds against Davis and 16 points and nine rebounds against Sacramento State.

Gathers, who is averaging 21 points and 8.2 rebounds, has led Northridge in both categories in five games this season.

Fleet blocker: At 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, USC wide receiver Gary Wellman is known more for his receiving than his blocking. However, the former Westlake High standout made a key block in the Trojans’ 17-10 victory over Michigan in Monday’s Rose Bowl.

Wellman screened out Michigan cornerback Todd Plate at the five-yard line on Ricky Ervins’ 14-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run, which broke a 10-10 tie.

“I ran and stalked (Plate) for awhile, then I was right in front of him,” Wellman said. “I looked back to see where Ricky was cutting, saw him going to the inside, so I turned to the inside and walled him off.

“We’re not taught to knock the defensive back down or block him real hard, but just get in his way.”

Wellman averaged a team-high 18.5 yards a reception this season, but was limited to one catch for six yards against the Wolverines.

“We played a little more conservative, dumping the ball off, because they were playing off and giving us the underneath routes,” Wellman said. “Their secondary will not give up the deep ball. The one attempt at a long pass we did have, Todd (Marinovich) more or less threw it out of bounds because Michigan had it covered.”

Wellman considered the Trojans’ win as a “ghost-busting.”

“The past two years we’ve had a ghost hanging over us that we couldn’t win the Rose Bowl,” Wellman said. “Now we’ve proven everybody wrong.”

Gary Klein and staff writers Brendan Healey, Steven Herbert and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.