Basketball Trip Tests Concordia’s Endurance

The Concordia women’s basketball team had a rough weekend in Fresno . . . then it got worse.

After losing consecutive games to Point Loma Nazarene, Fresno Pacific and Azusa Pacific in the Golden State Athletic Conference round-robin tournament, the Eagles got into two vans for the long trip home.

At 10:45 Saturday night about 40 miles north of Bakersfield, a tire on one of the vans blew out. Concordia Coach Sharon Campbell said the van had been going about 70 m.p.h. and started to swerve.

“God really protected us because there was very much potential of rolling,” Campbell said.

After pulling over and changing the tire, the caravan started south again. At about 2:15 a.m. on Interstate 5 in East Los Angeles, the van suffered another blowout, again sending the shaken Eagles swerving across several lanes.

This they couldn’t get the flat tire off the van and called a tow truck. The tow truck driver discovered the tire was wrapped around the axle and had to cut it away to put on the second, and final, spare tire.

Five minutes later, back on the freeway, the spare was flat--because it wasn’t properly inflated, it fell off the rim.

By that time, the frustration level was high and the neighborhood was forbidding, so the entire team piled in the operable van for the ride back to Irvine.

Arrival was about 4:30 a.m.

“It kind of topped it off,” Campbell said, “when we got back to Irvine and I wanted to go home to Seal Beach, my battery was dead.”

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No trouble: Campbell reported no mishaps during the Eagles’ short trip to Claremont Tuesday night. The team returned with a 87-55 victory against Pomona-Pitzer, Campbell’s first victory as Concordia coach.

Senior center Gitte Mejer scored 22 points and made all 10 of her shots from the field for Concordia (1-4).

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That’s LIFE: Last season, the LIFE Bible men’s basketball team had to forfeit a game with Concordia because it couldn’t find enough players for a full team.

The rematch was Tuesday night and it wasn’t pretty.

The Eagles won, 137-37, setting school records for total points and largest margin of victory. Concordia Coach Greg Marshall said he played his starters as little as possible.

“It’s kind of hard to say you didn’t run it up when you win by 100 points,” Marshall said, “but that certainly wasn’t our intention.”

Marshall also pointed out that the only individual record set was for passing. Agustin Heredia had 16 assists for the Eagles (2-2).

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Chapman women’s basketball Coach Mary Hegarty got her first victory as a head coach Tuesday when the Panthers held on to beat Pomona-Pitzer, 74-73.

“It was a lot of fun,” Hegarty said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to get on a roll.”

Chapman started the season with defeats to San Francisco State and Cal State Stanislaus at a round-robin tournament in Turlock.

Tuesday, Melody Earle had 24 points, breaking out of her early season shooting slump with a nine-for-17 performance, for the Panthers (1-2).

Notes

Concordia’s Craig Martin, a 6-foot-3 guard who transferred from Santa Monica College, becomes eligible to play tonight when the Eagles open the Pomona-Pitzer tournament. . . . Southern California College women’s volleyball player Genevie Wright was a All-Golden State Athletic Conference and All-NAIA District 3 selection. . . . Pacific Christian sophomore Kristin Hawks, who led the Royals to a National Christian College Athletic Assn. women’s volleyball title early last month, was an All-American selection. Hawks and junior Tina Wagner made the all-tournament team and Coach Bill Silva was named coach of the year.