COLLEGE DIVISION NOTEBOOK : Chapman Has a Plan for Pomona

He knows it is the longest of shots, but Chapman women’s basketball Coach Lindsay Strothers believes his Panthers can defeat Cal Poly Pomona in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament.

Pomona, which is ranked 15th in the NCAA Division II poll, won its 11th consecutive conference championship by sweeping 12 CCAA games, including 68-59 and 78-64 victories over Chapman.

Chapman (12-15, 6-6) finished in a third-place tie with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, lost a coin flip for the third seed and, as a result, will play the Broncos (21-5) at 8:05 tonight at Pomona. San Luis Obispo (15-11, 6-6) and second-seeded Cal State Dominguez Hills (17-10, 9-3) play in the first game at 5:45. The winners will meet to decide the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Pomona.

To break Pomona’s 16-game winning streak, the Panthers must shut down the Broncos’ inside game, Strothers said.

“Pomona is relentless,” Strothers said. “If you don’t hold them off, they’ll go around you.”

Strothers is referring to Carrie Stritenberg, Mildred Conston and Leslie Ellis. Stritenberg, a 6-foot junior, leads the conference in scoring with a 16.4 average. Ellis, a 6-2 senior, is averaging 14.3 points. Conston, a 6-2 sophomore, is second in the conference in rebounding with a 10.1. average and is scoring 12.5 points a game.

Chapman counters inside with Marvette Williams, a 5-10 senior who is averaging 16 points and 8.4 rebounds, and outside the Panthers have Linda Kirby (12 points), Julie King (11.8) and Missy Abraham (7.3).

Rog watch: Rog Middleton needs only three points in Chapman’s season finale against Cal State Dominguez Hills Saturday to surpass Bob Hamblin (1,884 points from 1955-59) as the school’s leading scorer, but Middleton has already passed a major milestone.

Without anyone’s knowledge at the time, Middleton became the leading scorer in CCAA history. William Alexander of Dominguez Hills scored 1,766 in 110 games from 1983-87. Middleton passed Alexander’s mark in his 96th game, while scoring 15 points in a 73-66 loss at Cal State Bakersfield Feb. 8.

The Chapman baseball team is riding high after defeating Cal State Fullerton, ranked No. 7 in the nation by the Collegiate Baseball/ESPN poll. The Panthers, in their first season as a Division I team, have beaten three nationally ranked teams; Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Northridge are the others. Against Pepperdine, another ranked team, they led, 2-0, before the Waves scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth.

“I don’t think anyone would have expected that we would beat all these ranked teams,” Coach Mike Weathers said, “but I can believe it after it’s over because the game itself that particular day has been played very, very well.”

The Panthers are batting .303 as a team. Jason White, a transfer from Golden West, has a .369 average; Kevin Cook, a transfer from Cypress, is batting .365 with three home runs; and Cliff Anderson, a senior from Kodiak, Alaska, is batting .347 with four home runs.

College Division Notes

The Southern California College men’s basketball team has apparently lost any chance of an at-large berth to the NAIA Division I tournament March 17 in Kansas City. The Vanguards, who were ranked as high as 11th this season, have split their past six games and now aren’t even among the others receiving votes in the poll. SCC (21-8, 7-4) will finish its Golden State Athletic Conference season Saturday at Azusa Pacific and at worst could finish in a second-place tie with Azusa. At best, the Vanguards could finish tied for first with Westmont, which SCC has beaten twice. The pairings for the eight-team District 3 playoffs will be announced Sunday.