Improving Dominguez Hills Splits 2

It has been down more than it has been up this season, but you have to call the men’s basketball team at Cal State Dominguez Hills gutty.

Playing without leading scorer Robert Barksdale, who had the flu, Dominguez Hills managed a split of its California Collegiate Athletic Assn. slate this weekend, losing to 12th-ranked Cal State Bakersfield on Friday night, 58-54, but rebounding with a 58-56 upset of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Saturday.

The Toros (6-14, 2-4) did it in the classic fashion of Coach Dave Yanai, with defense and key shot selection. Had it not been for three turnovers (they had 20 for the game) in the final seven minutes, the Toros would not have surrendered a 10-point lead against Bakersfield, either.

Dominguez Hills has now won two of three CCAA games and is no worse than two games out of the fourth post-season playoff spot.

Guard Raymond Bennett picked up the slack for Barksdale by scoring a career-high 26 points Saturday night. And the much-maligned center from Ghana, Joseph Janney, played one of his finest games, shutting down the post area in the second half Saturday night with tenacious defense.

Janney, who logged a career-high 36 minutes Friday night against Bakersfield, had seven rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot against Cal Poly on Saturday.

Bennett contributed two steals in the last three minutes.

Ironically, it was Mustang All-American candidate Coby Naess who figured heavily in the loss. Despite 18 points and six rebounds, he let Segaro Bozart of Dominguez Hills dribble around him sink the winning basket with 43 seconds left in the game. Then he missed a lay-in with 17 seconds left.

San Luis Obispo 79, Dominguez Hills 63: In the women’s game,San Luis Obispo (9-11 overall) went on a 21-4 rampage to open the game and evened its CCAA record at 3-3. Dominguez Hills (9-10, 1-4) got within four points with seven minutes remaining. The Lady Toros, who dropped below the .500 mark for the first time this year, have lost eight of their last 10 games.