COLLEGE NOTES : Freshmen Lead Toros’ Resurgence : Basketball: The ‘Carson Connection’ has made it a whole new season for Coach Dave Yanai’s Cal State Dominguez Hills team.

Freshman orientation is over at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

The freshmen have become veterans, and Coach Dave Yanai’s Toros have joined the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball race as a result.

Even with junior guard Robert Barksdale, the Toros’ leading scorer, fighting the flu recently, the Toros have won three straight CCAA games and pulled into a tie for third place thanks in large part to its young “Carson Connection,” freshmen Raymond Bennett and Vincent Washington.

The Toros swept Chapman last week as Bennett, the team’s point guard, scored 19 points at home and Washington, a forward, led with 16 points the next night in Orange. Bennett has raised his season average to 11.8 points and Washington to 11 to rank second and third behind Barksdale’s 18.3. Freshmen are now accounting for 57% of the Toros’ offense, with Bennett making 40% of his three-point shots.

More importantly, the Carson High duo has shown that the Toros’ future is now. Their quickness has given the Toros a new dimension. After the second Chapman game, Yanai commented: “Our quickness is one of our strengths. These are the subtle things that give us a little edge. It’s something good coming out of (Barksdale’s illness). Bennett has really stepped up. He has surfaced.”

Chapman Coach Bob Boyd, the former USC coach, was impressed with the young team as well. “They have some very good athletes, and Yanai has them playing the way he wants,” Boyd said. “I think their pre-conference record (4-9) is very deceiving. Their quickness and pressure defense disrupted us.”

The Toros started out slowly, playing a tough non-conference schedule while Yanai worked four freshmen into his rotation (center Norman Francis and guard Shelton Hill also play regularly). Bennett and Washington worked their way into the starting lineup early--Washington has started 20 of 21 games, Bennett 16.

The home-grown pair came to Dominguez Hills thanks in part to Yanai’s connections. The Toro coach started out at Fremont High, where one of his assistants was Richard Masson, now the coach at Carson. Masson has sent a handful of players to nearby Dominguez Hills.

The Toros play at home this weekend, facing Cal State Northridge at 8:05 tonight and Cal State Los Angeles at 8:05 Saturday.

The bigger they are . . . the harder Hank plays. Facing 7-foot shot-blockers Shaquille O’Neal and Stanley Roberts at Louisiana State, Loyola Marymount front-court star Hank Gathers had about half a dozen shots swatted. But the 6-7 senior not only wasn’t disturbed, he just kept shooting around or over the towering pair. Though LSU blocked 16 Loyola shots and O’Neal set a school record with 12, Gathers finished with a season-high 48 points and 13 rebounds and hit 20 of 35 shots in the 148-141 overtime loss.

In the locker room afterward, Gathers said, “I love that kind of game. I wish we could play those kind of guys every night. They’re two very good players, but I’m an exceptional player myself.”

Gathers said the challenge of playing taller, talented opponents brings out his best instincts, which were honed on the playgrounds of Philadelphia. “That’s definitely a Philly mentality--knock me down, I’m gonna come right back at you,” Gathers said. “(When O’Neal) blocked my shot, that really gets me excited.”

LSU All-American guard Chris Jackson, who met Gathers at a preseason photo session for the Playboy All-America team, noted, “I knew Gathers could play. He is really good; he’ll take it to you.”

By the Numbers: Gathers, who has reasserted himself lately as the Lions’ inside offensive force, went over 2,500 points for his college career over the weekend. He goes into tonight’s game at San Francisco with 2,512 career points and 1,063 rebounds, joining an elite group in NCAA history with more than 2,500 points and 1,000 rebounds. Entering the season, the NCAA listed 14 players at that level, and LaSalle’s Lionel Simmons recently joined the ranks.

Gathers’ longtime friend and teammate Bo Kimble is 30 points away from 2,000 in his college career. It should come this weekend, perhaps tonight, as Kimble continues to lead the nation in scoring at 35.8 points per game. Entering the season, 240 players in Division I history had scored at least 2,000 points. In Loyola annals, Kimble already has the second most prolific single season with 751 points. Gathers set the season mark last year with 1,015.

The third member of Loyola’s senior triumvirate, Jeff Fryer, has moved into fifth place in Lions career scoring with 1,643.

Times Staff Writer Paul McLeod contributed to this column.