COLLEGE DIVISION NOTEBOOK : Wait Was Well Worth It for SCC Men’s Basketball

Southern California College’s trip to El Cajon for a men’s basketball game with Christian Heritage turned into a long, strange evening Tuesday.

“It was one of the more unusual contests that we’ve participated in,” SCC Coach Bill Reynolds said Wednesday. “It was rather bizarre.”

It started with confusion over the starting time--the Vanguards expected the game to start at 7:30 p.m., but the Christian Heritage schedule showed 8:30.

That dispute was moot, however. Because of a girls’ high school volleyball match between El Cajon Christian and St. Margaret’s that started at 7, basketball would have to wait.

So Reynolds watched as El Cajon Christian, which shares the Christian Heritage campus, defeat St. Margaret’s, 16-14, 14-16, 15-13, 14-16, 15-11, to advance to the second round of the Southern California Regional Division V playoffs.

The basketball tip-off finally took place at 9:05, but because Christian Heritage’s new gymnasium isn’t quite completed, the game was played under rather unique conditions.

There wasn’t time to prepare the main court after the volleyball match, so the game was played on a smaller high-school length court after the temporary bleachers were relocated. Permanent baskets haven’t been installed, so portable basket standards were set up.

And finally, because there is no scoreboard, a water polo clock was used. Unfortunately, the polo clock could only handle 10-minute time spans, so the first 10 minutes of each half were hand timed, with the benches given occasional updates.

When it was over several minutes after 11, the Vanguards had won, 70-63, to run their season-opening winning streak to five games.

“It did make the drive home a little shorter that we were unscathed after all that,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds said the Vanguards played sluggishly, lost a seven-point halftime lead and trailed, 49-41, with about 12 minutes remaining in the game. But SCC then regained control with a 22-1 run.

It was the Vanguards’ fourth victory in five nights and two of the victories came in the Chapman Doubletree Tournament against NCAA Division II competition.

“If anyone told us we’d be 5-0 at this point, I would have thought they were on something,” Reynolds said.

As expected, the Chapman women’s volleyball team wasn’t selected for the NCAA Division II playoffs. The Panthers, who had lost in the first round of the playoffs in the past three seasons, were weakened by injuries and played inconsistently this season.

Chapman (20-17, 7-5 in the California College Athletic Assn.) lost its final two CCAA matches and finished in fourth place in the conference.

Senior outside hitter Debi Waller, who played at Whittier Christian High School, was an All-CCAA first-team selection for the second consecutive year. Rena Strange, a senior middle blocker from Magnolia High, was a second-team selection.

College Division Notes

Christ College Irvine senior middle blocker Miriam Paulus was an All-Golden State Athletic Conference selection. SCC freshman Genevie Wright, a middle blocker, and senior outside hitter Krista Hoover were also all-conference selections.