Rustlers’ Vaughan Takes on Tallest Tasks

It seems that no matter which team Golden West College plays, Jason Vaughan starts the basketball game looking up.

Vaughan, who is 6 feet 5, usually guards the opponent’s biggest or best player. When Golden West plays Cypress, he gets 6-10 Eric Pauley. Against Rancho Santiago, he goes up against 6-6 1/2 Erik Martin, who is considered the quickest forward in the conference, or 6-10 Corie Blount.

But there’s really no avoiding it for Vaughan, a sophomore from Santa Ana Valley High School. He and Darren Ernst, a 6-6 freshman, are Golden West’s tallest players.

“It’s just like in high school,” Vaughan said about always playing against someone taller. “I guess its always been that way. I’m used to it by now.”

Even in practice last season, Vaughan had to guard 6-9 forward Alex Kreps, who now is starting at Idaho State.

This season, Vaughan has worked to become an offensive worry for the person guarding him as well. He averaged six points last season coming off the bench, but has more than doubled that as a starting forward this season.

He shot mostly from the inside last season, but this season, at Coach Jim Greenfield’s suggestion, Vaughan went to work on his outside game.

He is averaging 13.4 points and 5.4 rebounds and shooting 50% (137 for 274) from the field and 81% (84 of 104) from the free-throw line.

“He’s really improved a lot,” Greenfield said. “Last year, he was a very limited player. He’s not a great athlete but he works hard. He has had to play a lot of minutes this season because he doesn’t really have a backup, and when he gets in foul trouble, we are in trouble.”

Vaughan, 20, enrolled at Orange Coast College after he graduated from high school in 1988. He was a part-time student at OCC that fall, working and playing in pick-up games when he wasn’t attending classes.

In the spring of 1989, Vaughan’s pickup games took him to the Golden West gym, where he met Greenfield. He transferred to Golden West because he said he likes the atmosphere around the campus better.

“I had fun in high school,” Vaughan said, “but I didn’t know if I would be any good in college. I didn’t feel I was ready to dedicate myself 100% to play then.”

Cypress forward Eric Pauley, the most sought-after big man still unsigned in Orange County, has announced he will take a recruiting trip to Kansas after the season ends.

With Kansas Coach Roy Williams and assistants from Louisville, Clemson and Oregon State in attendance last Wednesday, the 6-10 Pauley scored 27 points as Cypress defeated visiting Riverside, 94-85.

Pauley took a trip to Colorado State before the season started.

He needs 104 points to set the Cypress single-season scoring record. Pauley, who is averaging 21.6 points, has scored 561 so far this season. He has four regular-season games and at least one playoff game remaining.

Pauley is also third on the school’s all-time scoring list with 905 points. The top spot is held by Tyrone Branyan (1975-77) with 1,093.

Rancho Santiago’s Martin and Blount, the county’s other two outstanding big men, signed with Cincinnati before the season started.

The Golden West women’s basketball team can clinch the Orange Empire Conference title Wednesday at Riverside.

A victory by first-place Golden West (27-1, 9-0 in conference) over second-place Riverside (20-6, 7-1) will give the Rustlers a 2 1/2-game lead with two conference games remaining. Golden West defeated Riverside, 88-73, in the first round of conference play. Golden West finishes the season against Cypress at home Friday and at Saddleback Feb 13.

Community College Notes

Dan Redington started his baseball career at Orange Coast in impressive fashion over the weekend in the College of the Desert Tournament. Redington, a freshman from Esperanza High School, was nine for 17 (.529) with 11 runs batted in and scored seven runs. He had two doubles and a triple and was selected as the most valuable player of the tournament, which OCC won. Redington is the brother of Tom Redington, a two-time Orange County prep player of the year who is currently in the San Diego Padres’ system. . . Golden West lost to Fresno twice, 4-0 and 4-3, and was eliminated from the Fresno baseball tournament Sunday.