Freshman Guard Gave PLNC the Point It Needed

For Point Loma Nazarene’s women’s basketball team, Thursday’s NAIA District 3 championship game was an agonizing experience. The Crusaders got off good shots all night only to see most of them find the rim before the net.

When it was over and PLNC escaped with a one-point victory against Fresno Pacific, the Crusaders didn’t check to see if the baskets had lids. They were just thankful for another victory, and thankful to be able to say that 1990-91 was not a season of near misses.

Most of all, they could thank a 5-foot-5 freshman guard named Christy Stevens. With two seconds left and all the chips on the table, Stevens made the second of two free throws to help PLNC defeat Fresno Pacific, 66-65, for its first district title.

Nobody tried to calm the 18-year-old from San Jose after her first free throw, like many Crusader shots that night, went in and out. Nobody said a word.

“All year she’s been very poised,” PLNC Coach Bill Olin said. “I figured I didn’t need to say anything to her. The first (of her final two free throws) was right on.

“I don’t think anybody had the nerve to say anything to her.”

Instead, the Crusader bench held its collective breath. PLNC, topping off its best season since the program started in 1974 by playing its first district title game, was about to scrape out its biggest victory in its usual come-from-behind style.

And it was Stevens’ turn to play the hero for the Crusaders (24-7), who advanced to the NAIA National Championships this week in Jackson, Tenn.

Stevens served as a perfect example of the faith this team has had in itself all season. An 80% free-throw shooter, Stevens was struggling through a two-of-seven night at the line to that point.

“We were very aware of it,” Olin said of the title that nearly eluded the Crusaders. “We had (previously) beaten (Fresno) twice, by 11 and nine. The second time we were down by 15 at halftime. This time we were down by 15 in the second half. But that’s been the case all year. We’ve come back a lot.”

PLNC was only 11 of 22 from the free-throw line and was outshot by the Sunbirds, 51% to 40%, from the floor. Fresno Pacific led, 42-31, at halftime. But with PLNC trailing by six, junior guard Camille Armijo (who had a season-high 26 points) buried a three-point shot, then completed a three-point play to make the score 64-64 with less than two minutes to go.

With 10 seconds left and Fresno trying to work the ball inside, Shannon Abrams (15 points, 13 rebounds) stole a pass and got the ball to Stevens, who knew what to do with it. Stevens, who had 13 points, gave PLNC its only lead, drove into the lane against three defenders and picked the foul.

“They really shot poorly,” said Olin, who was named district Coach of the Year Tuesday. “But it can look like there is no hope and they keep plugging away.”

The Crusaders are seeded 28th in the 32-team national tournament and will open Thursday against fifth-seeded Wayland Baptist of Plainview, Tex., a team that has been ranked in the NAIA top 10 much of the year.

UCSD pushed Wazoo: The UC San Diego men’s basketball success story reached new heights Saturday when the Tritons won their first postseason game in school history, defeating Claremont-Mudd, 76-72, at Triton Gym. UCSD (23-3) was already enjoying its best season in history when it beat the Stags in its NCAA Division III tournament opener. How much farther the Tritons will advance remains to be seen. But to get an indication of how good they are, all one has to do is look at one of their three losses, a 103-78 setback to Washington State in December.

A week ago, the Cougars were sitting in third place in the Pac-10 at 16-8, 8-6 before they fell in consecutive games to UCLA and USC. But as many as four teams from the Pac-10 could get berths in the Division I NCAA Tournament, and WSU could be one of them. UCSD Coach Tom Marshall hints the only reason his team lost by 25 in Pullman is because he conceded the game early.

Said Marshall: “It was a 12-point game in the second half when I pulled my starters. We weren’t getting any closer. But, hey, they’ve got (eight) wins in the Pac.”

A breaking training: San Diego State’s men’s tennis team has been on the mend since Coach Hugh Bream’s strategy to create a sort of “hell week” for the Aztecs backfired and might have cost them the San Diego Intercollegiate Invitational championship two weeks ago.

Bream put his team through a schedule similar to what it will face during the Western Athletic Conference championships in May. It consisted of two consecutive days of dual matches, backed by the three-day tourney that had many of the Aztecs on the court from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. the first two days.

The WAC event is three consecutive days of dual matches, followed by 64-draw singles and doubles tournaments. At stake will be possible berths in the NCAA team and individual tournaments. Bream is willing to go unusual lengths to make sure SDSU is in condition by then.

“This is one of the best conditioned teams in college tennis,” he said. “They all run the mile in 5:01 to 5:40.”

But fatigue got the best of the Aztecs in the San Diego tournament, as various maladies forced Michael Sass (shoulder, ankle), Chris Numbers (knees), Dax Peterson (shoulder) and No. 1-singles player Ricardo Herrera (shoulder, ankle) to withdraw. Kerry Safdie (shoulder) played injured. Bream vowed to step up the conditioning once his Aztecs got out of the training room.

“We lifted a lot during the fall,” he said, “but we need to get back into the weight room.”