Coach Happy With CLU’s Performance

The Cal Lutheran men’s basketball team did not win the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title outright this season as it did a year ago, but that doesn’t mean Coach Mike Dunlap is any less satisfied with the team’s performance.

“Last year, we went 11-3 in conference and won by two games,” Dunlap said Thursday after Cal Lutheran’s 66-55 victory against Occidental. “We didn’t have as much pressure on us down the stretch. This year, we got off to a good start and the pressure was on us the whole way.”

The triumph over Occidental gave the Kingsmen (20-5, 12-2 in conference play) their first 20-victory season and a share of the SCIAC title with La Verne (18-7, 12-2).

The teams will meet in a playoff game at Occidental at 7:30 tonight. The winner automatically qualifies for the NCAA Division III playoffs, but even if Cal Lutheran loses, Dunlap is confident the Kingsmen will be invited to the 48-team tournament.

“We’ve been ranked among the top 20 (in the country) for the past 10 weeks, we were ranked 15th this week, and we’re the No. 1-ranked team in the West,” Dunlap said. “Even if we lose to La Verne, I can’t see us dropping so far that we wouldn’t get invited. But don’t think we’re going to make things easy for La Verne.”

ON A ROLL

Cal Lutheran guard Damon Ridley scored all of his 15 second-half points against Occidental during an 8 1/2-minute stretch after halftime in which his teammates managed only three points. Ridley, a 6-2 junior transfer from Sierra College who scored a game-high 24 points, was three for five from the field, nine for 10 from the foul line and had three steals that led to six points during the run.

PERFECTIONIST

Despite Northridge’s 8-0 record, baseball Coach Bill Kernen was disappointed with his team’s offense in three of the games--a 2-1 victory against the University of San Diego, a 5-3 victory over USC and a 10-4 victory against Loyola Marymount--prompting him to change the batting order for the Matadors’ most recent victory, an 11-4 decision Wednesday against Cal Lutheran.

In the San Diego game, Kernen said, the Matadors failed to capitalize on wildness by Torero ace Mike Saipe, who issued five walks in the fifth and sixth innings but allowed no runs.

“Getting punched out with two strikes without swinging the bat, swinging at poor pitches. . . . He lost it in the middle innings and we did not take advantage of that,” Kernen said. “You do that and you lose on the road. It just so happened we made some extraordinary plays on defense.”

Against the Trojans, the Matadors were limited to four hits.

“It’s the worst game we’ve played,” Kernen said. “Offensively, we’re just immature.”

In the Loyola game, Northridge stranded 12 runners and failed to capitalize on three bases-loaded situations.

QUOTEBOOK

Pierce baseball Coach Bob Lofrano, a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan and admirer of Ernie Banks: “Let’s play two? The way we’re playing, it’s ‘Let’s play one and get the hell outta here.’ ”

Pierce is 2-4, 0-2 in Western State Conference play after losing, 1-0, to Bakersfield on Thursday.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Upsetting top-ranked UCLA in the Bruins’ softball home opener Feb. 11 was about as much as Northridge Coach Gary Torgeson could ask for. The 14th-ranked Matadors, in their third season in Division I, are looking for respect among the softball elite. Beating the defending national champion is a step in that direction.

And after the Matadors’ doubleheader sweep of fifth-ranked Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday, few Division I teams are likely to snicker at the New Kids on the Block.

But some players believe otherwise.

“I still think people are taking us for granted,” junior center fielder Jen Fleming said. “I think last year they thought we were a Cinderella team.”

UCLA co-Coach Sue Enquist disagrees, to a point. Despite what other teams might think, Northridge is a team to be reckoned with, she said.

“We’ve always had a lot of respect for Northridge,” Enquist said. “They’re gutsy. They don’t give up. And they are notoriously underrated, so we give them more respect because they don’t get it.”

Last season the Matadors started 2-6 but won 24 of their final 30 regular-season games to post a respectable 45-25-1 record. The Matadors (8-2) are off to their best start since 1985, when they began 9-1 and won the Division II championship.

Staff writers Vince Kowalick, Theresa Munoz, John Ortega and Paige A. Leech contributed to this notebook.