A Sign of March: Pomona Women Are in Regionals

On the surface, it appears to be business as usual for the Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team.

For the 10th season in a row, the Broncos will compete in the NCAA Division II West Regional, which starts Friday at Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock. Once more, the Broncos (20-8) will enter the regional after winning the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship and are the top-seeded team.

Only this time, longtime Cal Poly Pomona Coach Darlene May admits she is a little more uncertain about her team’s chances.

“Hopefully, we’re peaking at the right time, but it’s hard to say,” May said. “If we had put together two good games in the (CCAA postseason) tournament last week, then I’d say we were peaking.”

But May is concerned because Pomona had to struggle to defeat UC Riverside, 57-55, in the first round of the conference tournament before beating Cal State Los Angeles, 76-49, in the title game.

“It just depends on what team shows up,” she said. “I hope the team that played Thursday (for the championship) shows up, or else we’re going to be back on the plane Saturday.”

The coach is also concerned about the condition of senior forward Stephanie Coons, who has been named the CCAA player of the year but missed the postseason tournament because of severe muscle spasms in her back. May said she is still uncertain of Coons’ status for the regional. “I’m hoping she’s better,” May said. “She should be better, but we just don’t know with something like that. I think she’ll be able to play--just how much we don’t know.”

May also says the four-team regional will have one of its strongest fields. The 15th-ranked Broncos will meet 20th-ranked Barry of Miami (26-3) in the first round; the other opener matches 19th-ranked UC Davis (25-4) against Stanislaus (21-7).

Barry, in only its third season of women’s basketball, ranks among the highest-scoring teams in Division II with an average of 91.7 points. The Buccaneers are led by center Maria Teal, a transfer from Western Kentucky who is averaging 22.1 points, and point guard Katrina Lofton.

May believes her team’s task will be to slow down the Buccaneers. “We’re really not a transition team like we have been in the past,” she said. “We started out that way, but we’re not really doing that anymore. So we have to try to slow them down a little and take them out of their game.”

In the absence of Coons, who is averaging 16.2 points and 7.2 rebounds, the Broncos were sparked last week by guards Debbie Wagner and Serenda Valdez and center Leslie Ellis. Wagner, a transfer from Northern Arizona, was named most valuable player of the conference tournament.

With or without Coons, May thinks her team will have difficulty advancing past the regional.

“Whatever happens, I’m pretty happy for this team, that we’ve been able to get back to the regionals,” May said. “Earlier in the year, I really didn’t know that we had a chance to be here.”

With the graduation of All-American center Niki Bracken and all-conference forward Marcine Edmonds, and with center Danielle Carter having just given birth to her second child, May knew the team would have its problems early in the season.

Indeed, the Broncos--who finished third in Division II last season and second in the division two seasons ago--entered the conference season in January with an uncharacteristic nonconference record of 9-7.

May said the team has played considerably better since it changed its offensive philosophy early in the conference season: “We went from a transition game to a more deliberate game, and I think that has really helped our team.”

But since the start of the conference season, the Broncos have won 11 of their past 12 games and appear to be enjoying business as usual.

College Division Notes

Terry Ross of Cal Poly Pomona, a senior forward who averaged 23.4 points and 9.3 rebounds to spark the Broncos to their first berth in the CCAA postseason tournament, was named the conference player of the year in men’s basketball. Cal Poly Pomona’s Dave Bollwinkel, who guided the Broncos to a 15-14 record and second place in the CCAA tournament, was named coach of the year. It was the first winning season for the team since 1985-86.

The Cal State Bakersfield men’s basketball team earned its fourth consecutive berth in NCAA Division II postseason play with an 85-74 victory over Cal Poly Pomona in the CCAA championship game. The Roadrunners (22-7) will meet an undetermined opponent in the playoffs, which start March 14.

The Claremont-Mudd men’s basketball season ended in a 76-72 loss to fourth-ranked UC San Diego in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs Saturday at La Jolla. Claremont, which tied with La Verne for the regular-season title in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and was ranked No. 15 in Division III, finished 22-5.