Saddleback, Riverside Ready for Another Showdown

Saddleback and Riverside, which have become the top contenders in the Orange Empire Conference men’s basketball race in recent seasons, meet Wednesday with first place on the line.

Saddleback (18-3, 6-0 in conference) travels to Riverside (23-3, 6-0) for a 5:30 p.m. game that features two of the state’s better teams. Riverside is ranked sixth and Saddleback ninth.

The teams tied for the conference title last season. Riverside won it in 1994 and Saddleback in 1993.

One of Riverside’s primary goals will be to slow Saddleback sophomore guard Anthony Carter. Carter leads the conference in scoring, averaging 27 points. He scored 43 points as Saddleback beat host Riverside, 84-72, in the first meeting last season. Carter had 19 in a physical game Riverside won, 105-100, in the final regular-season game last season.

In the second game against Riverside, Carter was thrown to the ground by Paul Culbertson, a 6-foot-6 guard, midway through the first half. Culbertson, who is averaging 20 points, also is back this season but can’t risk another altercation of any kind.

He has been ejected twice already this season. If he’s thrown out a third time, under conference rules he will be suspended for the rest of the season.

Riverside holds a size advantage, led by forward Gary Williams, who is 6-7 and 225 pounds. Williams is averaging 24 points. Sean White averages 19.7 points.

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The women’s race: Unlike the men’s race, the Saddleback women’s team appears to have no equal thus far.

Saddleback (19-0, 6-0) is outscoring opponents by an average of 34 points.

The Gauchos are ranked second in the state behind Ventura (22-0), but it’s unlikely the teams could meet before the state tournament March 7-9 in San Jose.

“Although [the players] say it isn’t, the winning steak is starting to get to them,” Saddleback Coach Jack Single said. “To keep them focused for the entire game is the challenge now. We seem to start well but fade in the second half.”

Saddleback, which has won its first six conference games by an average of 33 points, meets host and second-place Riverside (19-6, 4-2) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Saddleback’s nine players contribute and the team doesn’t rely on the three-point shot.

Instead, the Gauchos are a power team led by forwards Cha-ron Walker, who is 6 feet 1, and Shanna Renken, who is 6-0. Renken is averaging 15.8 points and six rebounds and Walker 15.4 points and 12 rebounds. Maggie Gorska, another 6-0 starter, is averaging six points and five rebounds.

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Rebounding machines: Lacey Sollie, a sophomore forward at Fullerton, has set the college’s all-time rebounding record. She had 10 rebounds in a 58-49 victory over Riverside Friday to improve her total to 416.

She passed Christa McDonald, who had 411. McDonald played in 1992-93 and in 1994-95. Sollie, from Whittier La Serna High, had 232 rebounds last season and has 184 this season.

Although Sollie is the all-time leading rebounder, she doesn’t lead the team this season.

Freshman Michelle deBruijn has 187 rebounds and Lupie Janos, a sophomore guard, has 181. Sollie and deBruijn have been especially productive of late. Each has 58 rebounds in the first six conference games for Fullerton (12-10, 4-2).

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Notes

Scott Wilcox, a sophomore center for the Orange Coast men’s basketball team, fractured his ankle in practice Thursday and is lost for the season. Wilcox, from Corona Centennial High, was averaging three points and four rebounds. . . .The Golden West men’s basketball team is down to seven players after Eric Kline left the team last week for family reasons.