Height Vs. Defense : That’s...

The stingy defense of Cal State Dominguez Hills will try to overcome the team’s decided height disadvantage against Loyola Marymount at 7:30 p.m. Monday in a women’s basketball game at Loyola’s Gersten Pavilion.

Loyola starts three players who are 5-foot-10 or taller. The Lady Lions (6-7) have won four of their last seven games after a 2-4 start, including an 86-48 win last week against visiting Valparaiso.

Dominguez Hills (8-5) is off to its best season in five years, already winning more games than it did in all of 1989.

However, the Lady Toros have lost three of their last four games. They ended a three-game losing streak last week with a 62-56 victory at Southern California College of Costa Mesa.

All of Loyola’s victories have come at home. Dominguez Hills is 5-4 on the road.

The coaches, not surprisingly, take opposite views of their situations.

Loyola’s Todd Corman was disappointed with his team’s start but seems to be more impressed with its play lately.

“We’re playing full games now, instead of only three-quarters of a game,” Corman said. “I’m pleased with the play of my bench.”

At Dominguez Hills, second-year Coach Van Girard appears to have succeeded in doing the job he was hired to do--turning around a program in disarray. The Lady Toros have never had a 20-win season, and the last time they finished over .500 was the 1984-85 season (18-8).

But in view of the Lady Toros’ recent skid, Girard views Monday’s game as a chance to fine-tune several parts of his team’s play.

“(Loyola is) a big team that likes to run. We will face teams like that in our conference, so it’s a good workout for us,” he said.

Corman also sees the game as a test. “We’re looking to use our bigger size as an advantage, much as we did against Valparaiso,” he said.

Said Girard: “When the season started, we were playing teams who weren’t quite as good as us physically. Now we’re playing teams that are at least as good, and that makes things tough on us.

“Mostly we’re a young team and we look good, but we have times when we go brain-dead on the floor, and we can’t afford to do this.”

Dominguez Hills is led by 6-foot freshman center Yvonne Vanlandingham from Long Beach. Ranking second in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. in scoring with 12.2 points per game, Vanlandingham is is also No.4 in conference rebounding with 7.3 per game.

Senior center Khyra Anderson, at 6-foot-3, is the conference’s leading rebounder with 9.8 per game.

After last year’s dismal 6-19 season, marked by offensive problems, this figured to be a rebuilding year at Dominguez Hills. At the beginning of the season, Girard said he would take defense for granted and work on getting the offense to produce.

A year ago, Dominguez Hills had no player who averaged as much a 10 points a game. The team made less than one out of three field-goal tries.

This year, Girard said, the Lady Toros’ offense has improved and the defense has continued to be good. Dominguez Hills leads CCAA teams in defense against field goals, holding opponents to less than one score in three tries. In addition, the Lady Toros have has forced opponents to commit 23.5 turnovers a game.

“We’ve been keeping it close in all of the games we play, but we lose focus for two to four minutes at a stretch,” Girard said. “Lately our practices have focused on the fundamentals of a better offense and cutting down on those mistakes.”

Corman is coming off his best season at Loyola (17-11). The Lady Lions’ explosive offense--also a trademark of the Loyola men’s team--got a showcasing in the victory over Valapraiso, when the team’s 86 points were a season high.

Kristen Bruich and Lynn Flanagan lead the scoring for the Lady Lions. Bruich, a 5-8 junior guard, is the leading scorer with 15.1 points per game. Flanagan, also 5-8 and also a junior guard, is having the best year of her career with 14.3 points per game.

Trish Gibson, a 6-foot-3 center, is tops among West Coast Conference players in shot blocking, averaging more than three blocks per game.

Another plus for the improving Lady Lions has been the return of Michelle Bettencourt, a 6-foot senior forward. Last year’s team leader in rebounds (6.5 a game), she was expected to do the same this season but missed four games with an ankle injury.

Both teams begin conference play Friday. Dominguez Hills opens at nationally ranked Cal Poly Pomona. The Lady Lions host Santa Clara University.