THE COLLEGES : Tables Have Turned Against Northridge Shooters During Losing Streak

Sometimes statistics can be misleading, but not those of the Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team, which has lost four consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games.

Northridge (9-12, 4-4) opened conference action with four wins and during that streak shot 56.3%, 32.3% from three-point range. Opponents shot 45.5%.

Lately, however, those numbers have turned around. In its past four games, Northridge has shot 39.2%--only 19.4% from three-point range--and the opposition has made 58.5%.

The team’s overall shooting slump pales in comparison to the problems of Derrick Gathers, the Matadors’ leading scorer.

Gathers, who averaged 20.3 points a game on 41.1% shooting--36.7% from three-point range--in nonconference play, made 52.2% of his shots and averaged 17.2 points in the first five CCAA games.

In the past three, Gathers has averaged eight points while shooting 17.8% (eight of 45) from the field and 10% from three-point range.

“It’s no mystery why we’re losing,” Coach Pete Cassidy said after CSUN’s 59-54 loss to Cal State L. A. on Saturday night. “We’re not hitting the open shots and we’re not playing very good defense. . . . It’s as simple as that.”

CLU to CFL? Ken Whitney, an offensive guard on the Cal Lutheran football team, was not invited to the National Football League’s scouting combine in Indianapolis last month, but he did attend a Canadian Football League evaluation camp in Toronto on Feb. 2-3.

Born in Montreal and raised in Calgary, Whitney, 6-foot-4, 300 pounds, is an attractive player for Canadian teams because of his size and also because his status as a Canadian citizen would enable a CFL team to sign a U. S.-trained collegian without exceeding its quota of 16 U. S. players.

At the camp, Whitney said he ran a 4.85-second 40-yard dash and did 30 repetitions of a 225-pound bench press.

While he still hopes to be selected in April’s NFL draft, Whitney expects to be chosen when the CFL holds its draft Feb. 23 in Hamilton.

“They (scouts) just said the draft should go pretty well,” said Whitney, who added that he nonetheless would wait until he knew of his NFL status before signing a contract.

Hot uniforms: Antelope Valley’s men’s basketball game against College of the Desert on Saturday at Paraclete High was supposed to be a Marauder home game, but Desert came dressed in its home uniforms instead of its road colors.

Antelope Valley, which won, 128-105, was forced to return to the college to retrieve its road uniforms. It wasn’t a mix-up.

Tyrone Thomas, Desert’s coach, blamed the launderer.

“We haven’t had any road uniforms for about two weeks now,” Thomas said. “We left them in the dryer too long and they melted into a ball.”

Spirited effort: With a 15-0 win over Antelope Valley, Mission, which has never made the state baseball playoffs, improved to 3-0. The Free Spirit has outscored opponents, 36-7.

“We had a good winter and are playing really well,” said Mission College Coach John Klitsner, whose team finished 10-23 in his first season as coach. “But there is still a long way to go. We still have a lot of tests coming up.”

Mission will take its next exam, against Pasadena, today.

No place like home: The Antelope Valley women’s basketball team (17-6), seeking its first conference title in the school’s 51-year history, is 6-0 in conference play at home. With a 66-60 victory over Desert on Saturday, Antelope Valley moved into a first-place tie with Desert for the Foothill Conference lead.

Still in contention: The Cal Lutheran men’s basketball team is 5-17 overall, 3-4 in NAIA District 3 play after a 78-72 loss at Biola on Tuesday night, but the Kingsmen still have a chance to make the seven-team district playoffs because of their ranking in the Dunkel Ratings.

Cal Lutheran was ranked ninth (30.4 points) in the district Dunkels--a system that factors in strength of schedule, results against highly ranked opponents, win-loss records, and point differentials--when the week started.

With a game left against top-ranked Westmont (48.1), third-ranked Southern California College (45.2) and two against sixth-ranked Master’s (40.3), the Kingsmen control their own destiny.

Kirby Lee and staff writers John Ortega and Brendan Healey contributed to this notebook.