Toros to Give It Their Best Shot With Bullet : Senior Has Quietly Become a Leader for Dominguez Hills, Which Plays San Luis Obispo in CCAA Tournament

Cheri Bullet is a shy, easygoing 21-year-old who takes basketball practice lightly and games seriously.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills forward-center acknowledges she often loses her intensity at practices, but once a game starts, she is all business.

The 6-foot senior leads the Toros in scoring (14.3 points a game) and rebounding (9.8) and is one of the defensive leaders on a team that specializes in applying half-court pressure.

“I’m lackadaisical at practice,” said Bullet, a Banning High graduate. “I know I’m the laziest one on the team. But I’m not lax in games. Even in a scrimmage I pick it up. I guess I’m just a game player.”

Bullet, a candidate for California Collegiate Athletic Assn. player of the year, will be named to the All-CCAA first team today when the selections are officially announced.

The honor is nice, but helping the Toros earn a berth into the NCAA Division II playoffs is more important to Bullet. Dominguez Hills will take the first step toward that goal today when it opens play in the four-team California Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament at Cal Poly Pomona.

The second-seeded Toros will meet third-seeded Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at 6 p.m. A victory will put the Toros in Friday’s final against the winner of today’s second game between fourth-seeded Chapman and top-seeded Pomona.

The Toros (17-10 overall, 9-3 in conference play) earned their first-ever CCAA tournament berth by finishing second in the seven-member league. Dominguez Hills and Pomona (21-5, 12-0) are favored to meet in the final.

Dominguez Hills has defeated San Luis Obispo twice this season, but has lost twice to Pomona. The Toros lost, 60-51, at Pomona on Jan. 25 and 61-60 in Carson on Feb. 21. Bullet led the Toros in scoring and rebounding in both games.

She is looking forward to the possibility of playing the Broncos again. Dominguez Hills has never defeated Pomona.

“We’re really excited about a rematch with Pomona,” Bullet said. “My goal is to beat them and make a name for the school. But we have to play our hearts off to beat Pomona.”

Bullet says last season’s disappointing finish makes qualifying for the postseason tournament special. As a junior she led the Toros in scoring (12.7), ranked second in rebounding (9.4) and was named to the All-CCAA first team, but Dominguez Hills finished last in the conference at 2-8.

“I think this team is closer and that really helps on the court,” Bullet said. “We all click and it’s making a difference.”

But Bullet’s improved play has made perhaps the biggest impact. She alternates between center and power forward with junior Dionne Vanlandingham and is more aggressive and more confident than last season.

“(Bullet) has really improved,” Coach Van Girard said. “She’s a much better basketball player than she was last year. She’s our prime person on offense and she’s our quiet leader. Last year we tried to get her to be more verbal, but she’s a quiet, introverted kind of player.”

Girard, a former Lynwood High girls’ coach, says he gave up on his quest to transform Bullet into a talkative leader.

“Athletically Cheri is as good as any post player I’ve been in contact with,” he said. “The only difference is maybe from a skill standpoint. Her skill level isn’t as developed. If Cheri had the exposure and started playing as early as some of the other girls, there’s no telling what she could accomplish because she’s a phenomenal athlete.”

Bullet didn’t start playing basketball until her junior year at Banning. Once she became a basketball player, she gave up competitive volleyball.

As a senior center, she was a second-team All-Bay League selection on the Pilots’ league champion team. She was also named Banning’s best defensive and most-improved player. Bullet was also a standout shotputter and hurdler on the Pilot track team.

Although Bullet wasn’t recruited, she contacted El Camino College Coach Kristy Loesener in hopes of playing for the Warriors. She became the school’s best player in some time, leading the Warriors in scoring and rebounding as a freshman and sophomore. She was a two-time All-South Coast Conference selection and led the Warriors to the 1990 state playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

“She’s definitely one of the better players we’ve had here,” Loesener said. “She’s very strong, very aggressive and very agile for her size.”

During her sophomore year, several Division I schools expressed interest in Bullet, including San Jose State and UC Irvine.

“We discussed it a lot, but she wanted to stay home,” Loesener said. “She was definitely Division I talent, but her priority is that she wanted to stay local.”

Bullet says she would have attended Irvine had she qualified academically. But because she failed to earn an associate of arts degree from El Camino, she was not eligible to compete at a Division I university.

“No one told me that I had to have an AA,” Bullet said. “It was disappointing because I wanted to play Division I basketball.”

Girard, who was hired in 1988 to revive the program, pursued Bullet because he believed she could help the Toros become competitive in the CCAA, one of the nation’s toughest Division II conferences.

“For us it was a steal to get Cheri Bullet because athletically she’s good enough to play Division I basketball,” he said.

But she will never be the fist-clenching, vocal leader. And she will always hate to practice.