McGowan Supplies Power for Pepperdine
The Pepperdine men’s basketball team opens West Coast Conference play Friday at St. Mary’s, and the return of forward Glen McGowan from his semester suspension should give the Waves a stronger lineup.
McGowan made five of 11 shots and scored 13 points in 22 minutes last Saturday in his first game of the season, helping the Waves end Brigham Young’s eight-game winning streak.
McGowan, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound sophomore, looked rusty, forced some shots and missed others he would normally make. He resumed practice only last week after sitting out the first semester of the school year on suspension for instigating a fight with teammate Will Kimble in September.
“Glen is one of our top players,” Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal said. “We missed him.”
McGowan presents matchup problems for opponents because he is a power forward who can score from the outside.
Westphal said McGowan will help narrow the Waves’ deficit in free throws and rebounding. Pepperdine (7-6) has attempted 94 fewer free throws than its opponents and is being outrebounded by an average of six per game.
“Teams had been shooting 10 to 15 more free throws than us,” Westphal said. “[McGowan] gets to the line. That’ll help even things out.”
McGowan said he felt good in his first game appearance in four months.
“I was trying to do too much and I was rushing my shots,” he said. “At halftime, Coach told me to not force things and let the game come to me.”
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UC Irvine plays at Utah State tonight in a key early season Big West Conference men’s basketball game. Utah State (11-2, 3-1 in conference play) has won 31 consecutive games at home and 41 of its last 42 Big West games at home.
Irvine (10-4, 3-0) will need Adam Parada to continue his strong play in order to challenge the Aggies. After a slow start, the 7-foot sophomore has put together consecutive strong games, giving opponents a player to worry about other than guard Jerry Green, and providing the Anteaters with a much-needed inside scoring threat.
Last Thursday, Parada scored 15 points in a 68-58 victory over Cal State Fullerton, then matched his career high with 20 points in a 72-53 victory over UC Riverside on Saturday. Against Riverside, he scored 10 consecutive points during a decisive second-half run.
“He was active,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said. “He started attacking the rim. He looked much better.”
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The Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team has used a different starting lineup in each of its 12 games.
Inconsistency, injury, illness and absences have led to all the shuffling, but after a 70-59 victory over Pacific in a Big West Conference game Saturday, when Joseph Frazier started in place of guard Ed Estavan, the Matadors (3-9, 2-1) may have finally found the right combination.
“I hope so,” Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell said. “We’re young, things aren’t set, and sometimes guys don’t always do what they should.
“It depends on what guys do in practice. We work on a merit system and if a guy’s not doing what he should, I put somebody else in.”
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Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s men’s basketball team is 9-3 and 3-1 in the Big West Conference, its best start since the 1991-92 season when the Mustangs started 13-1. Leading the way in victories over Utah State and Idaho last week was forward Brandon Beeson, a senior who played at Irvine Woodbridge High.
He averaged 18.5 points and 6.5 rebounds.
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Jenny Topping of Fullerton is among 22 players who have been selected by USA Softball as core athletes for its World Championship Team Camp that will be held in May in Oklahoma City. Topping, a junior catcher from Whittier, was an All-American and the Big West Conference player of the year in 2001 when she batted .423 with 14 home runs and 59 runs batted in.
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UCLA, which reached the NCAA men’s volleyball national title match last season, will open against UC Irvine in the Wyndham West Coast Challenge on Friday at UC Irvine’s Crawford Hall.
Pepperdine and USC will meet in a 5 p.m. match preceding the UCLA-Irvine meeting. The same teams will continue with pool play on Saturday with UCLA vs. USC at noon, Pepperdine vs. Irvine at 2 p.m., Irvine vs. USC at 5 p.m., and Pepperdine vs. UCLA at 7 p.m.
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College baseball teams across the Southland began practice this week for the Division I season that begins, for some, in a little more than two weeks. USC is ranked fourth, Fullerton 15th and Northridge 22nd in Baseball America magazine’s preseason poll. Stanford is ranked No. 1.
UC Irvine will play its first game since 1992 when the Anteaters play host to San Diego on Jan. 25.
Northridge and Riverside are competing in the Big West Conference for the first time.
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Cal State Long Beach will retire the numbers of former baseball coaches John Gonsalves and Dave Snow in ceremonies before games in February at Blair Field.
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Ann Lebedeff of Pomona-Pitzer was honored as the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. National Women’s Coach of the Year for Division III at the ITA Coaches’ Convention at Saddleback Resort in Florida.
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Staff writers Mike Bresnahan, Gary Klein, Lauren Peterson and Eric Stephens contributed to this notebook.