COLLEGE DIVISION NOTEBOOK / MARTIN BECK : Chapman Has an Early Test on Schedule

The Chapman men’s basketball team will open its season Tuesday against one of the tougher teams on its schedule. The Panthers play host to Pomona-Pitzer, the defending Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion and NCAA Division III playoff participant.

“It’s going to be a tough opener for us,” Chapman Coach Mike Bokosky said. “I would have rather played them somewhere down the line but as an independent, we have to take them where we can.”

Chapman, which beat the Australian Institute, 71-63, in an exhibition Tuesday, isn’t at full strength. Umahl Anderson, a starter on the 1993-94 team who missed last season because of reconstructive knee surgery, will be out at least two more weeks. Anderson still was experiencing discomfort in his knee and underwent arthroscopic surgery last week to repair cartilage damage.

Two other key contributors, Toby Curto (strained thigh muscle), a two-year starter at guard, and 6-foot-5 forward Norman Coulter (sprained ankle) have been forced to sit out of recent practices although they played in the exhibition.

Pomona-Pitzer, with virtually its entire team back and a strong recruiting class, is expected to be a favorite in the SCIAC race this season.

Chapman also lost two starters who left school. Ramin Bastani, who played at Corona del Mar, transferred to USC and isn’t playing intercollegiate basketball. Point guard Adam Dzierzynski, who averaged 15 points and 7.5 assists, is taking at least a year off from school to travel. He is currently in Australia.

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Chapman’s 8-1 record wasn’t enough to impress the NCAA Division III football playoff selection committee--even 9-0 La Verne was left out of the playoffs--but the Panthers finished the season at the top of at least one list: scoring.

Chapman averaged 47.2 points. Wittenberg in Springfield, Ohio, and La Verne each averaged 45.6. The Panthers outscored their opponents, 425-133, including 138-0 in the first quarter.

Chapman also had the highest single-game scoring total in Division III, 79 points in a victory over Menlo.

Chapman is well represented in the final regular-season Division III statistical rankings. Some highlights:

--Second in nation in turnover margin with a 39-17 ratio of gains to losses.

--Eighth in rushing offense (293.2 yards); 12th in total offense (442).

--Darnell Morgan was third in scoring average (14.0) but had more touchdowns (21) than anyone on the list. He also was ninth in all-purpose running (178) and 11th in rushing (143.2).

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Nice surprise: Morgan has been listed as a senior on the Chapman roster all season, but recently Coach Ken Visser discovered Morgan has another year of eligibility remaining.

Chapman had been led to believe that Morgan had played two seasons for Cerritos College. “He’s so doggone quiet,” Visser said. “He finally just walked up and said, ‘You know, Coach, I didn’t play that year.’ I just about had a party.”

Morgan rushed for a school-record 1,289 yards this season and 691 in 1994.

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George Carey, interim women’s volleyball coach at Concordia, had his heart in two places last Saturday. Carey’s Eagles were playing host to Cal Baptist in an NAIA Far West Regional match and his daughter, Jennifer, a freshman at Newport Harbor High, was starting for the Sailors against top-ranked Huntington Beach in a Southern Section playoff game.

The Careys were one for two on the evening.

Newport Harbor pulled the upset of the season, beating Huntington Beach in five games.

George’s team won the first and third games, but lost the last two to heavily favored Cal Baptist. Amy Bonacorsi had 22 kills and 27 digs, Terilyn Walker had 18 kills and 37 digs and Elaini Kollias had 18 kills and two digs for the Eagles, who finished 17-13.

Carey, who took over the team this year when Mary Holl decided to take a sabbatical, is still deciding whether to apply for the Concordia job on a permanent basis.