The Colleges : New Cast Eases Transition at Valley

The Valley College women’s basketball team lost 2 All-State players from a team that reached the state semifinals last season, but the Lady Monarchs are rolling again under second-year Coach Doug Michelson.

Valley (13-3) has 10 wins in its past 11 games, including a 74-47 victory over El Camino in the championship game of the Riverside tournament last week. The Lady Monarchs will conclude their nonconference schedule Friday at Mt. San Antonio College before opening play in the Western State Conference on Jan. 4 at Bakersfield.

“We had a really good recruiting year,” said Michelson, whose team finished 28-4 last season and was eliminated from the playoffs by eventual state champion Santa Rosa. “We’re playing 10 people and seven of them are freshmen.”

Last season, Valley was led by forward Dametra Johnson, now at Colorado State, and guard Bernadette Tillis, an assistant coach at Valley working on an Associate of Arts degree.

Ruth Aguilar, a 5-foot, 10-inch All-Southern California Conference forward last season and the state’s third-leading rebounder, is averaging 14.5 points and 10.5 rebounds.

Aguilar was the most valuable player in the Riverside tournament, in which she averaged 15 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore forward Shagarro Lattin, who is averaging 8.5 points, also was selected all-tournament at Riverside.

The talented freshman class includes Christine Rumfola from Burbank, who is averaging 10.5 points and was selected to the all-tournament team in the 16-team East Bay Classic earlier this season. Valley finished second in that tournament.

Guard Tisa Rush from Kennedy, forward Karrie Parsons from Burbank, forward Sandrine Rocher and guard Leticia Carranza from North Hollywood and forwards Angie Smith and Sharlene Cirrito from Reseda are other freshmen playing key roles.

Fast track: The Master’s College men’s basketball team might not have the fastest players in the West but the Mustangs probably present the quickest national anthem.

The Master’s version, which rings clearly through its gym, was taped from a record at double speed by Mustang assistant Dave Montgomery and forward Gerald Thomas. Like many sports fans, Montgomery has seen athletes chomping at the bit, waiting for a singer to finish a personalized, and unnecessarily extended, version of the song.

“I wanted a peppy national anthem,” Montgomery said. “Everybody says its the fastest they’ve heard.”

Surprise package: With 11 freshmen on a 13-player squad, Coach Al Nordquist expected a few surprises from his Moorpark College basketball team this season.

He is most surprised, however, by the play of point guard Roger Thomas, who averages 10.9 points a game to lead Moorpark in scoring, and Damion Dicus, a 6-2 guard.

“Roger controls the tempo of our game and both him and Damion are big surprises for us as far as how well they are playing,” Nordquist said.

Back to action: The Cal Lutheran men’s basketball team will resume action Friday after a 12-day layoff, playing host to Cal Poly Pomona.

The Kingsmen (6-4) have been off since Dec. 17 when they posted a 66-63 overtime victory over Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Cal Lutheran will play host to Cal State Northridge on Wednesday in the only meeting of the year between the teams.

The Kingsmen then play 3 road games before returning home Jan. 14 to meet Southern California College.

Staff writers Gary Klein and Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.