THE COLLEGES / MIKE HISERMAN : Tardy Moorpark Pair Pay Price

The next time Damian Wilson and Jimmy Galbert report for action after missing the Moorpark College basketball team’s bus, they had better show up lugging a punctured tire or a dead battery.

Or at least bearing a better alibi.

Their most recent one apparently got thrown out for lack of evidence.

Last Saturday, Wilson and Galbert, the Raiders’ top scorers, showed up for a game against Ventura with less than three minutes to play in the first half.

Car problems, they told Coach Al Nordquist, had prevented them from catching the bus.

That story, though far from original, must have been somewhat plausible because Wilson and Galbert ended up playing most of the second half.

Two months before, at a tournament in Pasadena, the same wayward duo had been benched for a game by Nordquist after arriving late for warm-ups--presumably with an even worse excuse.

However, it now appears that Saturday’s reprieve was only temporary. Wilson and Galbert did not play in Moorpark’s 62-47 loss to Santa Barbara on Wednesday and on Friday Nordquist said that he might also hold them out of tonight’s game against Oxnard at Santa Clara High.

“They are on the team. They are practicing,” Nordquist said. “We’re still deciding what to do. It’s been a difficult time for everyone on the team.”

Wilson’s entire two-year stint at Moorpark has been tinged by controversy. Saturday’s incident marked at least the fourth time this season he has clashed with the coaching staff.

In early December, before the Pasadena tournament, Nordquist suspended Wilson for four games after the player had a verbal run-in with Raider assistant Marc Joffe.

On Jan. 11, Wilson played only the first 2 1/2 minutes against College of the Canyons before being removed for the rest of the half.

Nordquist said his ongoing differences with Wilson are “obvious,” but he declined to elaborate, saying only, “talking about it doesn’t seem to have any value that I can see.”

Neither does there seem to be any value in keeping such disruptive influences as members of Moorpark’s team.

The Raiders possess average talent yet have fallen to 8-17 after going 26-6 last season.

Wilson’s attitude appears to be a big part of the problem.

Even in the midst of a 93-61 blowout by Ventura, Wilson focused on being the center of attention, pointing fingers or thrusting his fist skyward to celebrate each of his own baskets.

He seems more interested in style than substance. Where a two-handed pass to the chest will do, Wilson would rather attempt a no-look pass--assuming, of course, that he passes at all.

Wilson, who averages a team-high 20.9 points a game, has extraordinary talent. Unfortunately, it is being compromised.

False advertising: Northridge is moving up to play Division I-AA football in 1993, but that doesn’t mean the Matadors will be playing a better brand of football.

Coach Bob Burt said this week that the 10 schools that are considering the formation of a Division I-AA conference are discussing a plan that would limit team financial aid to a maximum 15 athletic scholarships.

That is nine less than Northridge had last season playing at the Division II level.

It’s a small world: Ron Allen, the Nevada Las Vegas academic adviser who posted bail for Rebel forward J.R. Rider after his Jan. 24 arrest, was a volunteer assistant at Antelope Valley College last season when Rider played there as a sophomore.

Rider, the leading scorer in the Big West Conference, was taken into custody after an altercation with a Las Vegas police officer.

Allen paid the $200 bail and UNLV deemed Rider ineligible until he made restitution.

Scoring machine: It looks as though Tony Madison’s reign as Antelope Valley’s single-season scoring leader is going to be a short one.

D. J. Jackson, the Marauders’ 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward, has 713 points entering tonight’s Foothill Conference game against Mt. San Jacinto, 96 shy of the record Madison set last season. Jackson needs to average 19.2 points in Antelope Valley’s final five games to become the all-time single-season leader.

He is an odds-on choice to do so. In the Marauders’ past six games he has averaged 34.2 points, with a low of 28 and a high of 41.

Staff writer John Ortega also contributed to this notebook.