Pt. Loma Nazarene Wins Triton Tipoff Championship

As it did a year ago, Pt. Loma Nazarene won the championship of the Triton Tipoff men’s basketball tournament, taking Saturday’s wild final from Redlands, 133-116, at UC San Diego.

Shawn DeLaittre scored a game-high 39 points and had nine rebounds to give new Crusader Coach Dan Davis his first tournament victory at PLNC.

After a tight first half, PLNC led by only 58-56, but scored 75 points in the second half. DeLaittre, the tournament’s most valuable player, did a good deal of that damage, but finished two points shy of the tournament record he tied in Friday night’s victory over UCSD.

Frank Dews added 27 points and Julious Coleman 19 for the Crusaders (3-1). John Arnold paced Redlands (2-1) with 27 points, and teammate Brett Grebing, a Mission Bay graduate, had a game-high 11 rebounds.

UC San Diego defeated Christian Heritage, 73-63, in the third place game played earlier. Chris Moore had 28 points and eight rebounds and Andy Swindall nine points and 10 rebounds for UCSD (2-2). Jeff Martin scored 16 points and Tobin Wilkins 14 for the Hawks (0-5).

Gylan Dottin scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half to lead the University of San Diego to a 103-96 exhibition victory over Marathon Oil at the USD Sports Center.

Doug Harris and Joe Temple added 17 points apiece, and, like Dottin, both did most of their scoring in the final 20 minutes. Dottin also had 14 rebounds.

The Toreros, who open the regular season against San Diego State on Tuesday, trailed by 13 early in the second half, but took the lead for good with 7:56 left.

MEN’S SOCCER

With the winner earning a trip to the final four, the University of San Diego will play host to Indiana in the West Region final of the NCAA playoffs today at 1 p.m. at Torero Stadium.

Tickets--$6 for general admission, $4 for students, senior citizens and children younger than 12--will be on sale at the Torero Stadium box office at 10 a.m.

USD (17-4) advanced to this match with a 2-1 victory over fifth-ranked UCLA last Sunday and a 3-0 shutout of Stanford at USD on Nov. 14. The Hoosiers (14-5-4) shut out Washington, 2-0, last week after defeating Evansville, 4-1 on Nov. 15.

The USD-Indiana winner will meet either Davidson (18-4-3) or North Carolina State (13-2-4) Friday in the national semifinals at Davidson, N.C. Duke (16-3-2) will meet the winner of today’s Dartmouth (11-4-2)-Virginia (18-2-1) match in the other semifinal. Duke advanced by beating Southern Methodist on Saturday, 0-0, 7-6 on penalty kicks.

The championship match is Dec. 6 at Davidson.

The Toreros are led by All-West Coast Conference forwards Chugger Adair and Guillermo Jara, sweeper Roger Lindqvist and goalie Scott Garlick. Adair, a senior from Hilltop High named the WCC offensive player of the year, and Jara, the WCC freshman of the year, led the WCC in goals with 15. Jara led the conference in points with 46 and Adair was second with 40. Lindqvist, a sophomore from Sweden, was named WCC defensive player of the year, and Garlick, a sophomore, led the conference in goals against average at 0.831.

In addition, Seamus McFadden, the only coach in the 14-year history of the Torero program, earned his second WCC coach of the year award in three seasons.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

UC San Diego was lapped by St. Martin’s (Wash.) College, 100-50, in a nonconference game in La Jolla. Sara Mease scored 11 points and was the only Triton in double-figure scoring. St. Martin’s (5-2) was led by DeeDee Bailey’s 32 points. UCSD (1-3) made only 16 of 68 (.235) shots.