CCI Has Top Seeding in Hand

The Christ College Irvine women’s basketball team, which finishes the regular season Saturday at home against Cal Baptist, already has clinched the top seeding in the NAIA District 3 tournament.

The Eagles (23-4, 9-0 in the Golden State Athletic Conference) will play host to the semifinals and final of the tournament next Wednesday and Thursday.

The tournament field will be set Sunday with the first-round games scheduled Monday. Fresno Pacific (18-7, 7-2) will probably receive a bye into the quarterfinals along with the Eagles.

The Eagles, who have a 14-game winning streak, are ranked No. 24th in the NAIA national poll and likely would get an at-large berth in the NAIA national tournament March 3-9 in Jackson, Tenn., even if they don’t defend their District 3 title.

Gitte Mejer, CCI’s 6-foot-2 junior center, was named the district and conference player of the week, after leading the Eagles to victories over Point Loma Nazarene and Azusa Pacific.

Mejer scored 36 in an 83-61 victory over Point Loma and 29 in a 78-66 victory over Azusa. Stacy Kirch, a senior point guard, had triple-doubles in each of the games.

Athlete of the week sweep: D’Andre Brown, a 6-6 senior forward on the CCI men’s team, was also named the athlete of the week in the district and conference.

Brown had a season-high 34 points and 18 rebounds in the Eagles’ narrow loss last Saturday to Azusa Pacific, the nation’s top-ranked NAIA team. It took a last-second three-point shot by Azusa’s Scott Day to pull out a 72-69 victory. In an 86-72 victory over Point Loma Nazarene, Brown had 20 points for the Eagles.

The Southern California College women’s team will probably make the district playoffs for the first time in school history.

It already has been a landmark season for the Vanguards and first-year Coach Dean Cooper. By defeating The Master’s College, 83-54, Tuesday, SCC (14-12, 3-7) assured itself of the first winning season in school history.

“I think the girls are finally learning how to win,” Cooper said.

Although the Chapman women’s team is having a rough season--the Panthers are in the midst of a 10-game losing streak--sophomore guard Melody Earle has been a solid performer.

Earle, who played at Estancia High, was named the women’s athlete of the week in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. after scoring 29 points in an 84-64 loss to Riverside and 25 in a 75-54 loss to Cal State Los Angeles. Earle, who is leading the Panthers with a 16.5 average, made 20 of 28 shots from the field, including five of seven from beyond the three-point line.

Streakin’: With a single in Chapman’s 3-2 victory over defending NCAA champion Pepperdine Tuesday, left fielder Buster Nietzke extended his hitting streak to a school-record 26 games.

Nietzke, who leads the team with a .351 average, hit safely in the final 16 games last season and each of Chapman’s 10 games this season.

The old record of 23 was set by Tim Burroughs in the 1982 season.

Pacific Christian men’s basketball Coach Lee Erickson is scrambling to find a gym for Saturday.

Pacific Christian is playing host to the National Christian College Athletic Assn. Division II West Regionals, Friday and Saturday, and the first-round games Friday will be at PCC’s usual home site, Titan Gym at Cal State Fullerton.

But Titan Gym is unavailable all day Saturday because it must be prepared for a locally televised game between Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara that night.

So Erickson has been scouring the area for available gyms. He said he has made inquiries with at least eight facilities, but all except one was unavailable because of high school playoffs or junior basketball leagues.

For the moment, Erickson has reluctantly settled on Independence Park in Fullerton, where he’ll have to set up bleachers and chairs to handle the approximately 400 spectators he expects.

Add NCCAA: San Jose Christian (17-11), top-seeded in the tournament, will play LIFE Bible (2-17) of San Dimas in the first round at 6:30 p.m. Friday. PCC (20-10) will play Simpson (5-16) of Redding following the first game. The games Saturday are tentatively scheduled for 6 and 8 p.m.

PCC and San Jose have split two games this season and last season met in the finals of the West Regional, with San Jose winning in four overtimes.

PCC is led by 6-foot-3 sophomore Charles Ross, who is averaging 35.4 points.

The winner will advance to the NCCAA national championships March 4-6 at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo.

Notes

The Chapman men’s basketball team will finish the season with three road games, tonight at Cal Poly Pomona, Saturday at Cal State Los Angeles and Feb. 27 at Cal State Dominguez Hills. The Panthers (6-17, 3-8 in the CCAA) have a slim chance of advancing to the four-team conference tournament. They are two games behind fourth-place Cal State San Bernardino and one-game behind Los Angeles and Pomona. However, Chapman hasn’t won a conference road game since winning at Dominguez Hills in February of 1991. . . . Two Christ College Irvine women’s basketball players have been named to the GTE Academic All-District VIII college division team. Genevieve Graff, a senior guard who carries a 3.67 grade-point average in behavioral science, was named to the first team; Stacy Kirch, a senior guard who also has a 3.67 GPA in behavioral science, was named to the second team.