Horton’s Defense Puts Opponents on Guard

Jeanine Horton’s abilities as a defender on the basketball court are frightening. They even scare her friends.

When the UC Irvine women’s basketball team plays Stephen F. Austin Saturday it will be a reunion for Horton, a 5-foot-8 Anteater guard, and Shawnta Johnson, the Lumberjacks’ leading scorer. A polite request, pal-to-pal, came over the Internet not long ago from Johnson.

“She said, ‘Please don’t guard me,’ ” Horton said. “I guess she remembers how I play defense.”

Hard to forget, considering the two were teammates at Howard College in Big Spring, Tex., the last two years. Howard finished 27-2 and reached the national semifinals last year.

Horton’s offense contributions were minimal. She averaged five points. But with Johnson and two other future Division I players on the roster, points weren’t hard to come by.

The Anteaters do have a need for a little offense from Horton, and the ability is there. Against Syracuse last month, she scored 15 points, making six of eight shots.

Since then she has slipped back into a defensive shell.

She took only two shots, making both, the next game against West Virginia. She didn’t take a shot against Ohio or Oregon State.

She is shooting 73% from the field. It would be even more impressive if she had taken more than 11 shots.

“We need her scoring abilities,” Coach Mark Adams said. “She can penetrate and has a good shot. We haven’t seen it since the Syracuse game. We need her to start doing that pretty quick.”

The jump to the Division I level is part of it. There is also a difference in philosophy.

Howard was a run-and-gun team, with the emphasis on the run. The points Horton did score came in transition.

“We maybe ran three or four plays a game,” Horton said. “Here, it’s more a half-court offense. I have been adjusting to the system.”

Painfully, at times.

“I don’t think she is comfortable yet,” Adams said. “She’s getting to know our players and our system. She’s learning what we expect from her.”

Horton certainly didn’t shy away from shooting at Riverside North High School, where she once scored 43 points in a game. At Howard, those skills were put on ice.

“Our team was so strong offensively that I really didn’t look to score,” Horton said. “I took on the role of playing defense.”

It worked. Howard was 55-7 in Horton’s two seasons.

“That team is like a family,” she said. “Shawnta and I talk over the Internet about the transition between JC and Division I, what our classes are like, how we like our schools.”

With a request or two thrown in.

“She doesn’t want me guarding her,” Horton said.

*

Megan Nugent, sidelined with a knee injury, may be forced to redshirt. Nugent, a 5-11 forward, has bursitis and tendinitis in her right knee.

“She can’t go much further along,” Adams said. “It will take her time to get back into shape. We’ll look at it later this week.”

Nugent averaged 14 points at Boulder (Colo.) Fairfield High School last year. Adams was expecting her to make a big contribution this season.

*

The Irvine men’s team defeated Northern Arizona Saturday, not that it shook up college basketball, or even rocked Coach Pat Douglass’ world.

“I hope that beating Northern Arizona isn’t a big moment in my career,” Douglass said. “Its only significance is we’re a young team and we want to be ahead of the development of last year’s team. We didn’t win a game against Division I opponent [Portland] until late in December.”

There were other positives. Point guard Jerry Green took command, scoring 24 points.

“This has been Jerry’s team for the last two weeks,” Douglass said. “Each game he gets better. We don’t set him down and say, ‘Did you see this or did you see that.’ We try not to program him. We let him learn each game.”

*

Hands on coaching? Guard Jason Flowers was out of position late in Saturday’s game. Fortunately, he was standing in front of the Irvine bench. Douglass gave Flowers a little shove to get him in gear.

“He needed to get to the corner,” Douglass said.

Flowers was in the right spot to sink a key three-pointer with 2:44 to play.

*

Michelle Dienzo, a senior for the women’s swim team, is within sight of three school records.

She finished sixth in the 100-meter freestyle in the Speedo Cup over the weekend. Her time of 53.72 seconds was .70 off the school record. She is also within .35 of the record in on the 50 freestyle record (24.28).

“I think she has decided she’s going to have a great senior year,” Coach Charlie Schober said. “She didn’t say a whole lot about it before the season, but I could tell right away she had a different attitude. We have talked a lot since and she wants to finish off well.”

That would include her part in the 400 freestyle relay. Dienzo, junior Stacy Rosenberg, sophomore Sabra Martini and freshmen Grace Wang swam a 3:38.36 in the Speedo Cup, three seconds off the school record.

Anteater Notes

Anteater midfielder Pat Lee was named second-team All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Lee had 10 goals this season. . . . Maureen Diaz, a senior at Pasadena Mayfield High School, has signed a letter of intent with the women’s tennis team. She is ranked No. 4 in Southern California Juniors.