COLLEGES : Lions and Toros Optimistic After Weekend Wins

The Loyola Marymount and Cal State Dominguez Hills men’s basketball teams got a much-needed boost in confidence Saturday night.

Coming off losses Friday, Loyola broke a five-game losing streak in West Coast Conference play by outrunning the University of San Francisco, 118-90. The Toros upended 11th-ranked UC Riverside in overtime, 82-71.

Although the Lions remain in last place in the WCC at 1-5 and the Toros are only 2-3 in California Collegiate Athletic Assn. play, both teams go into weekend action with renewed optimism.

“Our goal this week?” Lion Coach Jay Hillock asked. “We want to win two.”

Loyola plays host to San Francisco tonight and St. Mary’s on Saturday.

Dominguez Hills plays a home-and-home series with Chapman College. The Toros are in fifth place in the seven-team league. The top four teams advance to the conference tournament.

“We have a club that’s certainly not out of it, and not to be discounted,” Toro Coach Dave Yanai said after his team scored 13 consecutive points against Riverside in overtime.

“This was a very, very sweet victory for our fellows,” Yanai said. “The two games with Chapman, we have an opportunity to get on the plus side of .500 and go into the final five (conference games) with a chance to get into the playoffs.”

The Toros are 13-7 overall and could easily have a record that would merit Top 20 consideration. But in the first weeks of the season, the Toros lost three games in overtime.

“Those first games, what was heartbreaking was we had leads and they shot (three-point baskets) to tie it,” Yanai said. “(I feel like) those were victories for us. Turn those around, we’re looking at 16-4. But those experiences made the team tougher and better at handling these games. We’ll take an early-season nonconference overtime loss if it leads to a conference overtime win any time.”

Especially heartening for the Toros was the second-half play of Keith Billingslea, who at 6-foot-3 is brawny enough to play forward in the CCAA but skilled enough to play guard. Since becoming eligible in mid-December Billingslea has been searching for his role. On Saturday he did a little bit of everything.

“I think we turned a big corner,” Billingslea said. “Coach allowed us to play more aggressive on offense and we let the defense dictate the way the game should go.”

Loyola also got a boost in the backcourt when shooting guard Craig Holt scored 13 points, the first time he has scored in double figures since Jan. 5. With scoring leader Terrell Lowery getting 20 points and three-point specialist Ross Richardson adding 17, the Loyola offense was able to open up. Center Richard Petruska also had his best game of the season, getting 29 points and 14 rebounds.

“We played decently,” Hillock said. “Holt got some easy shots early, plugged both of them and got his confidence going. We’ve been going with Richard more because he’s been shooting well but it’s important to get Holt going. He plays so hard and he’s important in our press.”

Role Reversal: In case you missed it last week, that was former Rolling Hills High standout Dave Butler portraying a basketball-playing doctor on the ABC-TV series “Doogie Howser M.D.” However, the 6-9 Butler, who was a Pacific 10 Conference rookie of the year and a starting forward for several seasons at UC Berkeley, played a character who had just graduated from Duke Medical School.

Somewhat ironic, considering Butler’s high school teammate, Jay Bilas, actually played at Duke, went into acting and is now back on the Duke bench as an apprentice coach. “The character I played was Jay Bilas,” Butler said with a laugh.

Butler, who returned to Berkeley and earned his MBA last spring after playing two seasons overseas, is in private business now and says he doesn’t foresee a future in show business.

“Now and then I get calls when they need a basketball player,” he said. “It’s fun, the money’s not bad but I don’t think I have the persistence to answer all those casting calls.”

Butler also has a part on another ABC show, “Equal Justice,” scheduled for Feb. 13.

After missing the first eight weeks of the season with a broken nose, freshman Karee Bonde is contributing her long-range shooting touch to the Dominguez Hills women’s basketball team.

In losses to Cal Poly Pomona and a victory over UC Riverside last week, Bonde made four three-point baskets each night, tying the school record held by teammate Denise Slater.

In the four games since she returned to the lineup, Bonde is 13 for 31 from three-point range. Her .419 percentage is second in the CCAA. In conference play only one player has taken more long-distance shots than the Lady Toros’ freshman.

Notes

In the latest NCAA basketball statistics, Loyola Marymount’s Terrell Lowery ranks eighth in scoring (28.1 per game), second in assists (9.5) and 11th in three-point baskets per game (3.6). Teammate Ross Richardson ranks eighth in three-point percentage at .537, making him the highest-ranked freshman in the nation. . . . Tricia Gibson, center for the Loyola women’s team, is fifth nationally in blocked shots at 3.3 per game. The Lions (8-12 overall, 1-5 in West Coast Conference play) play host to San Francisco (12-8, 4-2) today and St. Mary’s (15-5, 4-2) Saturday. Both games start at 5 p.m. St. Mary’s features guard Anja Bordt, the two-time WCC player of the year who is second in the NCAA in assists (10.1 average), and Cheree Tappin, who ranks eighth in free-throw shooting (.883). When they met last week, Bordt recorded 20 assists, the second-best total in the nation this season.

Loyola was picked by WCC baseball coaches to win the league title. Pepperdine, which also got first-place votes, finished second, followed by Nevada, Santa Clara, San Diego, St. Mary’s and San Francisco. . . . The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo pitching rotation includes freshman right-hander Rob Croxall of El Segundo. . . . Another El Segundo alumnus, junior Matt Filson, is an outfielder for UC Irvine. The Anteater roster also includes pitchers Mike Calvert, a junior left-hander from Palos Verdes, and senior right-hander Steve May from Westchester.