COLLEGE DIVISION NOTEBOOK / MARTIN BECK : Hawaiian Trip an Adventure for SCC Team

Anyone who has traveled by air during the holidays has a couple of horror stories. Now the Southern California College men’s basketball team has a good one to tell.

On Thanksgiving Day, as the Vanguards were settling into what was expected to be a five-hour flight to Honolulu, the pilot announced over the intercom that he was turning the plane around because of mechanical problems.

At the time the plane was more than two hours out from Los Angeles.

“My wife thought he was joking,” SCC Coach Bill Reynolds said, “She said, ‘What does he think it is, April Fool’s Day?’ but then someone noticed that we were already banking to turn around.”

Back at Los Angeles International, the passengers had to wait three hours before another airplane was ready. After 16 hours in transit, the Vanguards finally made it to their destination, Brigham Young Hawaii on the Big Island.

“Thanksgiving Day turned out to be a Thanksgiving weekend in itself,” Reynolds said.

Not hungry: The SCC team had planned to have Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant in Hawaii Thursday evening, but the dinner was delayed until noon Friday.

Because of the double flight Tuesday, the Vanguards had two dinners on airplanes.

“So in essence I guess we had three Thanksgiving dinners,” Reynolds said.

For the most part, Reynolds was pleased with the Vanguards’ play in their three games in Hawaii. They beat Carlton (Minn.), 90-86, in the first round of the BYU Hawaii tournament Friday and then beat BYU Hawaii, 76-69, Saturday to win the tournament title.

Monday, the Vanguards (3-2) lost, 101-91, to Hawaii Hilo after trailing, 53-33, at the half. BYU and Hawaii Hilo were ranked No. 19 and No. 20 in the NAIA preseason poll.

“It was really encouraging that even without a front line we’ve shown flashes of being able to compete with bigger, more physical teams,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds was especially happy with the play of Mike West, a 6-foot-3 senior forward who is averaging 18.7 points and 15 rebounds.

The Vanguards’ home opener is Saturday against Pomona Pitzer (4-0), which won the Menlo tournament and beat UC San Diego, a perennial Division III power.

Mike Bokosky, the Chapman men’s basketball coach, was one of about 20 Santa Ana Valley High School alumni who played in an exhibition victory over the Santa Ana Valley varsity Monday.

Bokosky, a mid-1970s graduate of Santa Ana Valley who went on to coach at the school, said he enjoyed the opportunity to play with former teammates and players he coached. He said the alumni team’s best player was Tony Neal, who played four years at Cal State Fullerton and was drafted by the Lakers.

Bokosky, who played at Riverside and Saddleback colleges and Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., also contributed.

“I scored a couple buckets but there were cheap ones, cherry picking,” he said.

After losing its season opener, the Christ College Irvine women’s team has won five consecutive games. During the Thanksgiving weekend, the Eagles traveled to Silver City, N.M., and won the round-robin Western New Mexico tournament.

Thursday, CCI avenged its season-opening loss, beating Western New Mexico, 97-85. Friday, the Eagles beat Golden State Athletic Conference rival Fresno Pacific, ranked No. 13 in the preseason NAIA poll, 51-50. Finally Saturday, they beat Sul Ross (Tex.) State, 86-49.

Notes

Brian Kenney, who missed the Chapman men’s basketball team’s 63-60 loss to Occidental last week because of strep throat, returned to practice Monday for the first time in a week and is expected to play Saturday when Chapman plays host to Biola. . . . Aaron Cornell, a 6-0 shooting guard who transferred to Chapman from Rio Hondo, practiced again Tuesday after sitting out the first two games and preseason practice because of a back injury. He is expected to get limited playing time Saturday.