COLLEGE BASKETBALL 1990-91 : 49ers Hope Experience Makes the Difference : CS Long Beach: Only one starter is missing from last season’s 25-9 team.

She lost the recruiting battle for Lisa Leslie, but Cal State Long Beach Coach Joan Bonvicini has in her lineup a quick and experienced group of players ready to reclaim the Big West Conference title.

“That’s our goal,” Bonvicini said.

It appears attainable. Nevada Las Vegas and Hawaii, which finished first and second in the conference, both lost key starters to graduation. And the 49ers (25-9) will be without only one starter from last season--Angelique Lee.

So, this is basically the same team that made it to the NCAA tournament, but one that also made its earliest exit in nine consecutive years, losing in the second round to Stephen F. Austin, 78-62.

“We felt that if we were more together we could have gone farther,” junior forward Penny Moore said. “That made us put more into our relationship with each other. This year we’re like one big happy family.”

Time will tell if that remains so. The 49ers already lost their first exhibition game last Friday, 79-63, to the Soviet national team.

“We need to tune up in a couple of areas,” Moore said. “We need to pressure for 40 minutes and not just one half, and we need to concentrate more on rebounding.”

The Soviet team is formidable, however, so there is still reason for optimism for a team as talented as the 49ers, who are currently ranked 12th in the Associated Press preseason poll.

“We’re better than a year ago because of experience,” Bonvicini said.

Nothing much will change in the team’s style of play. “We’re still going to run,” Moore said.

And why not? Long Beach has two excellent guards in 5-6 Dana Wilkerson, a senior who led the 49ers in scoring with a 15.6-point average, and Trise Jackson, who averaged 12.7 points and 4.3 assists.

Moore, who averaged 14.6 points and 7.6 rebounds, and junior center Kari Parriott will work inside. Vjera Kaludjerovich, a 6-2 junior forward who played considerably last season, will start in place of the departed Lee.

Suzana Vrachar, who played on the Yugoslav national team last year and formerly with Kaludjerovich on the junior national team, will back up at the post and forward positions.

Bolivia Gaytan, a 6-4 center-forward who left USC in the middle of last season, has joined the 49ers and will be eligible Dec. 29. Volleyball player Danielle Scott will also join the basketball team after Christmas.

Freshman Kellie Bennett, a 6-1 forward Bonvicini describes as “a very excellent shooter,” figures to see a fair amount of action also.