Malone Isn’t Sorry to See Record Broken

Judy Malone, UC San Diego women’s basketball coach, kept her school scoring record as long as she could, but Nov. 26 she finally had to let it go.

Malone set the UCSD single-game scoring mark in 1974, getting 38 points against Mesa College.

But with just seconds remaining in the Tritons’ 78-69 victory over Pomona-Pitzer, senior forward Cari Young sank her 19th field goal and 40th point. If Malone wanted to be selfish, she could have taken Young out at the end and kept a share of the record. But Young played the entire 40 minutes.

“I don’t hold players out to keep the record,” a laughing Malone said. “Most of my assistant coaches were kidding me, asking me how I could let her break my record.”

Young, who has led the Tritons in scoring and rebounding the past two years, was embarrassed by the attention she received.

“She never really felt comfortable,” said Malone, in her 15th season as UCSD’s head coach. “Everybody was asking her for her autograph.”

Malone said she wasn’t even aware that her record was about to fall.

“My coaches kept telling me about it during the game,” she said. “I was more concerned about winning.”

Young, a 5-10 power forward from San Pasqual High, made 19 of 26 from the floor and two of four from the line. Caryn Cranston started the game guarding Malone, but eventually Pomona-Pitzer switched to a zone.

“They just couldn’t stop her,” Malone said. “She was scoring at will in the paint. Cari is left-handed and they could never quite figure that out. She had one of those nights where everything was falling. It was incredible.”

“She posted up real well and our players got the ball. She had a sweet little turn-around going.”

A la Judy Malone?

“No, I had more of a power game,” Malone said.

Young could tie Malone’s last standing record if she continues to score at her current pace of 25 points a game. Malone holds the record with an average of 25 points a game.

“If I really wanted to keep myself in the record books, I’d better not let her play anymore,” Young said.

The Tritons are off to a 2-1 start and host Bethel College Thursday.

Where are the Wildcats?: Six players from El Camino High’s 1990 San Diego Section championship basketball team are playing at a higher level: freshman forward Shaun Scurry is averaging 12 points for Palomar College; freshman Heath McCoy is a starting point guard at Long Beach City; sophomore guard Glenn Ankton (20 points a game) and sophomore Dee Boyer (eight points, eight rebounds) are starting at Saddleback College; after a year at USIU, Travis Gilley has surfaced at Dixie College and freshman guard Jeff Reeves is playing at Southern California College.

Boyer has signed an early letter of intent with UC Irvine.

Milestone for Foster: Lost in all the hoopla of Point Loma Nazarene’s 76-71 victory over UCSD in the finals of the Triton Basketball Classic was Coach Ben Foster’s 300th victory.

Foster, who’s in his 17th season as men’s coach, is 300-219 after Tuesday’s game. Foster also has his name in another part of the PLNC record books. He is the school’s second all-time leading rebounder (1,324) and is fifth on the all-time scoring list (1,786). Foster played at PLNC from 1966 to 1968.

The school will celebrate Foster’s milestone with a “Build your own ice cream sundae bash” after Saturday’s home game with Whittier.

Torero snubbing: University of San Diego forward Jill Shaver scored 52 points in three games of the Wahine Classic in Hawaii, including 26 against Providence, but was left off the all-tournament team. Shaver, a 6-foot sophomore from Albuquerque, is the Toreras’ leading scorer (16.5), third-leading rebounder (5.8) and second-leading passer (2.8 assists).

Kevin Arthur, a sophomore defender from Poway High, was named, not snubbed, by the West Coast Conference. He was named first team all-WCC. Arthur started all 19 games for the Toreros.