WOMENS’ BASKETBALL PREVIEW : Aztecs and Toreros Both Have Problems

After spending a month preparing for tonight’s game, rivals San Diego State and University of San Diego should be ready to bust through the gym door for the chance to play.

But as much as these two women’s basketball teams have anticipated tonight’s 7:30 tipoff, at SDSU’s Peterson Gym, to a game for city bragging rights, their coaches have found reason to dread it.

“We’re like 1-16 or 1-17 against San Diego State--it’s horrible,” said USD Coach Kathy Marpe, whose Toreros are actually 1-19 against the Aztecs. “At the end of the game, they think they can win and we don’t.”

But Marpe, who is looking at this game as a character builder even though USD has a good chance to win it, had trivial problems compared to the crisis Aztec Coach Beth Burns faced Tuesday.

Forward Rachelle Johnson, a transfer from Mesa College who averaged 27 points and 18 rebounds there last year, underwent a magnetic resonance imaging exam Tuesday on an injured foot that could require surgery to remove a bone.

Surgery would sideline Johnson for two months. Burns will know the results today.

“I knew going into the season that one injury could devastate us,” Burns said. “Now we don’t know where our points are going to come from. All our schemes are out the window.”

Not only is Johnson out, but fellow forward Tameka McGlawn’s surgically repaired knees have kept her off the court and she is questionable for tonight.

Marpe knows exactly what Burns is facing.

When 6-foot-4 center Chris Enger suffered a stress fracture in her foot in USD’s West Coast Conference opener last year, the season unraveled. The Toreros finished 9-17, 3-11 in the WCC. Enger was averaging 13.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 blocked shots when she went out. The Toreros were 2-11 without her.

“Chris is very hungry to do well,” Marpe said. “But she’s still bothered by the foot.”

In fact, Enger, a senior, might hobble a little on her size-12 men’s sneakers tonight. She suffered a mildly sprained ankle two weeks ago. But the Toreros are happy to welcome her back in any shape.

“We were competitive without her, but we didn’t win,” Marpe said. “We had to completely redo our defense. That’s a hard transition to make before the second game of conference.

“Everybody was playing out of position.”

That must sound familiar to Burns.

“Our defense was going to be strong,” Burns said. “But now, without Rachelle . . .”

Burns will have to change all three defensive attacks the Aztecs had learned before Johnson, a 6-0 junior from Patrick Henry High, was injured five minutes into an exhibition victory over the Belgium National Team last week.

“It’s a huge blow,” said Burns. “She’s about six feet and can just about grab the rim. She’s a national track athlete (Johnson competed one year at Cal State Long Beach). She can guard a point guard.”

SDSU (18-11, 9-5 in the Western Athletic Conference last year) also lacks depth; Burns could dress as few as eight players tonight. Without the injuries, she figured the Aztecs would challenge for the WAC championship this year. Others agreed. SDSU was picked second in the conference in a preseason poll, with 41 points to Brigham Young’s 45.

USD doesn’t have a problem with injuries and depth. With three returning starters in Enger, four-year starting point guard Angie Straub and forward Jill Shaver, the Toreros have more experience than the Aztecs.

What they don’t have is experience beating the Aztecs.

USD has usually been able to play step for step with SDSU until it was time for someone to come forward and make a play to win the game. Last year, the score was tied with 38 seconds left before the Aztecs pulled it out, 72-68.

Said Marpe, illustrating the fact, “Chris (Enger) missed and Kieishsha (Garnes) scored.”

Garnes, SDSU’s 6-3 All-WAC center who controlled the floor, has graduated. The Toreros say Garnes’ departure might provide the opening for a breakthrough victory.

“Garnes is a big loss for them,” Marpe said. “We had to double her last year. We can now pretty much play with them straight up. But the Wright twins are much quicker than we are.”

With twins Falisha Wright and Lakeysha Wright, 5-6 sophomores from Paterson, N.J., all is not lost for the Aztecs. Falisha led the Aztecs in minutes and averaged 18.8 points and 3.5 assists as SDSU’s freshman point guard last year.

Junior Tammy Blackburn (5-0) is the other starter at guard, while Lakeysha Wright gives the Aztecs some depth at the position. The only returning starter beside Falisha Wright is Michelle Suman (8.7 rebounds per game, 42 blocks last year) a 6-3 forward turned center.

“Our goal was to challenge for the league, no question,” Burns said. “But I can’t really say now (if we will be better than last year). I’d say we’ll be more balanced. But we’re playing a brutal nonconference schedule and a majority of the minutes will go to four sophomores and a freshman.”

Shaver, a 6-0 junior, averaged 13.5 points per game last year for USD and has improved her outside shooting. Straub, a 5-5 senior, averaged only 6.9 points but will have more of an opportunity to use her solid jump shot with Serena Eiermann (5-7) and Laura King (5-7) sharing the other back-court position.

Either freshman Michele Brovelli (5-10) or Mt. Carmel High alumna Vicki de Jesus will start opposite Shaver.

All eyes for USD, however, will be on Enger, a Vista High graduate who has yet to recapture the dominance she showed during a freshman year in which she went on to play in the Olympic Festival.

The Toreros will need her against SDSU.

“If we can stay with them till the end of the game,” Marpe said, “that’s almost a moral victory.”

Said Burns, “On paper you have to favor them a little bit.

“Angie Straub is an excellent player. Jill Shaver is an excellent player. Chris Enger is one of the best on the West Coast.

“But in a rivalry like this, it comes down to who wants it.”