Gainey Makes Gains With Resourcefulness : College basketball: Guard from Mater Dei has become Fresno State’s floor leader with court sense and her three-point shooting touch.

Four years after leaving the relative security of her parents’ home in Santa Ana for college life in Fresno, Geri Gainey still is getting an education on the finer points of self-sufficiency.

“I’m waiting for the plumber,” she said as she talked on the phone the other day from her apartment near Fresno State. “I want to take a shower, but I can’t. I hope he gets here soon.”

If he never arrived, Gainey undoubtedly would figure out an alternative. She hasn’t become one of the stars of the Bulldog women’s basketball team for her court sense and shooting touch alone. Her resourcefulness carries over from the gym to real life and vice versa.

Gainey, a 5-foot-6 point guard from Mater Dei High School, has been the full-time floor leader and three-point specialist for Fresno State since her sophomore season in 1988-89. She is the co-captain of this year’s team and holds school records for career three-pointers (115 in 276 attempts) and for consecutive three-pointers (seven over two games). She ranks sixth in scoring in school history with 1,023 points and sixth in assists with 309.

Going into tonight’s home game against UC Irvine, Gainey is 15th in the country in three-point field-goal percentage at 45.9%.

It was one of those three-pointers that defeated then-nationally ranked Cal State Long Beach, 73-72, with five seconds remaining in a Big West Conference game on Jan. 23. Gainey said it was one of her all-time highlights.

“You dream about something like that all your life, and when it comes true it’s amazing the rush that you get,” said Gainey, who shared conference player of the week honors with Cal State Fullerton’s Genia Miller last week . “I love the three-pointers. That’s the thing I’ve worked the most on over my college career and it’s paid off.”

Handling pressure is one of Gainey’s main contributions to the Bulldogs, not only because she thrives on it, but also because that’s one of the roles Coach Bob Spencer has defined for her.

“She’s our leader on the court and our leader off the court. When we get in trouble, we try to go to her,” Spencer said. “She utilizes her abilities to the best of her potential, or her potential to the best of her abilities, however you want to put it.”

Said Gainey: “I love being the team leader because, first of all, it shows that the coach has faith in me, and second, it is good preparation for me for later in life.”

Real life has tested Gainey, 22, before. A couple years ago, one of her six siblings, 28-year-old brother Tim, was killed in an automobile accident during a visit to Fresno. She managed to pull through--”Time heals,” she said--but it wasn’t easy. Even now, Gainey said she frequently thinks of her brother.

“There were times out there when I just went through the motions. That was really tough for me,” Gainey said about the games she played after the accident. “I try to keep him with me. We say a prayer before each game and that’s when I usually think of him.”

Gainey credits Tim and her other four brothers for much of her success. They tutored her on the game during pickup contests--once they determined her a worthy opponent. And they were among her greatest supporters at Mater Dei and now at Fresno State.

But it was her sister Mary, also a former Monarch and Bulldog standout who graduated from Fresno State last year, who fueled Gainey’s interest in basketball as a youngster in Santa Ana.

That’s where the family had moved to after stops in Fresno--where Gainey was born--Cypress and the San Francisco Bay area because her father, Bill, kept getting transferred in his job as a paper goods salesman.

“I was always her (Mary’s) little shadow, so everything she did I had to do,” Gainey said.

Except she did it a little better--in basketball anyway. At Mater Dei, for instance, Gainey was a two-sport athlete who won four varsity letters in basketball and three in softball. She set school career basketball records in scoring (1,193 points), assists (276) and rebounds (386) and probably would have in three-pointers, too, except the rule wasn’t fully adopted in Southern Section high school basketball until Gainey’s freshman year at Fresno.

Gainey was also voted the Angelus League’s most valuable player for the second consecutive season her senior year, when she averaged 15.9 points.

She caught the attention of Arizona State, San Jose State, UC Irvine and Fresno State, and that’s when the shadow factor struck again.

“We needed a guard and we thought she could fulfill that responsibility,” Spencer said. “We knew her sister, so we had the inside edge in that regard.”

The association has worked well for both parties. The Bulldogs, though only in the middle of the pack in the Big West this season at 4-4 (11-7 overall), got a solid player who helped them take fifth place in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament last year. And Gainey is only a few months away from graduation.

She said she plans to be a high school speech teacher and perhaps also coach basketball. She had a 4.0 grade-point average in her last semester and has maintained a 3.3 GPA at Fresno State. None of which, Gainey said, has been as easy as pumping those long-range shots.

“The workload was the biggest adjustment. I don’t think you can ever prepare for the amount of work you have to put in to be successful,” Gainey said. “Here in Fresno it’s real, real hot in early September when we start practicing, so to compensate for that we practice real early. Your days get very long and you have to force yourself at nights to open your books.”

After graduating in December, Gainey said she will pursue her teaching credentials and hopefully get a job somewhere in the Fresno area. When she leaves the team, Gainey said it will be with fond memories and personal satisfaction.

“I’ve really enjoyed my experience here,” Gainey said. “I always wanted to make a difference on the team and I feel I’ve done that.”