Chapman Finds Gold Deep in Its Roster

Chapman women’s basketball Coach Mary Hegarty planned for her team to have depth this season--after all, the Panther roster lists 19 players--but she didn’t expect to dig this deep.

Disappointed with the Panthers’ effort and especially their defensive intensity during a 15-point loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Jan. 10, she decided to experiment with wholesale substitutions.

A few days later against UC San Diego, Hegarty often sent five players into the game at once. Chapman led by as many as 14 points in the second half before holding on for a 68-67 victory.

Then, using a similar game plan, Chapman beat Christian Heritage, 96-44, Saturday and Whittier, 106-83, Tuesday to run its record to 10-6, 5-1 in January.

Against Whittier, Chapman’s leading scorer, Melody Earle, committed her third foul in the first half and came out of the game with Whittier leading by as many as six points.

Then the Panthers’ combination of starting point guard Deb Nilsen and reserves Carrie Glodt, Monique Sweet, Alana Conyers and Kathy Kaupu took over.

Chapman led by seven at the half and with those five starting the second half, quickly pulled away. Conyers finished with a team-high 17 points. Sweet, Kaupu and Earle each scored 12.

“I like the type of team we are when these players are in the game,” Hegarty said.

Hegarty, in her second season with the team, is especially pleased with the play of Glodt, a junior from Katella High and Fullerton College.

Glodt, a 5-8 wing, barely made the team in the fall, but has proved invaluable because of her defense. Until the UC San Diego game, she had only played sparingly but Hegarty said she never complained.

“It would have been easy for her to say, ‘Why should I work this hard when I’m not getting any results,’ ” Hegarty said. “But she persisted, got some opportunities and made the most of them.

“I wish I would have figured it out a lot sooner--maybe we wouldn’t have six losses now.”

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The Chapman men’s team will play Concordia in a nonconference game tonight in Irvine. This is the last of six consecutive road games for the Panthers, who will play their first January home game Saturday against UC Santa Cruz.

Chapman (12-6) has won six in a row and is playing its best basketball of the season. “The thing about our program is we always seem to play better when we get out of December,” Chapman Coach Mike Bokosky said.

Concordia (17-4) lost its third consecutive game, 67-66, to Point Loma Nazarene, Tuesday. The Eagles had won 13 in a row and peaked with a No. 10 NAIA national ranking. This week they are tied for 24th with Azusa Pacific.

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With the loss to Point Loma, Concordia fell to 2-3 in the Golden West Athletic Conference, in a tie for fourth with Southern California College and Cal Baptist.

Point Loma (9-9, 1-4) won when Terence Johnson made a three-pointer at the buzzer, but the Eagles had a chance to put the game away moments earlier.

Leading by four with less than a minute remaining, Concordia’s Pharoah Jones made a steal and passed to Chris Martin on a two-on-one break. Martin tried to lob the ball back to Jones but turned it over.

Taylor Golonka then made a 30-foot shot with eight seconds left. Martin was fouled with five remaining and made one of two free throws, before Johnson’s big finish.

Concordia has another tough conference game Saturday when it plays host to first-place Westmont (14-4, 5-0). It is the Eagles’ homecoming.

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Todd Gragnano, the former Los Alamitos quarterback who was Chapman’s backup quarterback last season, has decided not to use his final season of eligibility, Gragnano said this week.

Gragnano started one game, the Panthers’ home-opening 34-14 victory over Claremont-Mudd and played in four other games. For the season, he completed 22 of 50 passes for 313 yards and two touchdowns with four interceptions.

One of Orange County’s most highly recruited players from the 1990 high school graduating class, Gragnano accepted a scholarship to Nebraska. After two years, he transferred to Louisville, where he did not play.

He gave up football and transferred to Long Beach State, then moved over to play on Chapman’s first team in 62 years.