Small Colleges -- Bcc Women Are Short On Bench, Long On Wins

Many basketball coaches routinely complain about a lack of depth, but Bellevue Community College women's coach Hilary Recknor isn't just blowing smoke when she talks about having a short bench.

Recknor started the season with 10 players, had just six players available for six games and currently has an eight-player roster after adding Joan Lynn Williams recently.

Recknor said an injury has sidelined one player - Shavela Brown (knee) - for the rest of the season and two players quit the team for personal reasons - Lynn Lundquist and Brenda Jack.

Despite the lack of womanpower, BCC is ranked No. 2 in the NWAACC rankings with a 12-4 overall record and 3-0 record in league games.

"When you consider what we've been through, we're having an outstanding year," said Recknor, a former Washington Husky who is in her fourth season as BCC's head coach.

During one game this season, against Linn-Benton C.C. in the opening round of the Chemeketa C.C. Christmas Classic in Salem, Ore., Dec. 28, Recknor was forced to go with four players on the floor for the final eight minutes of the first half when injuries sidelined two players, leading scorer Alicia Anema (cut lip, concussion) and Meaghan Jowdy (ankle).

Anema, a former standout at Watson Groen Christian who is avergaing 22.8 points a game, shook off the cobwebs and returned for the second half of that game, which BCC won 67-48. The team went 5-1 in the games when the roster was down to six.

The Helmswomen have a home game against Highline Saturday.

Win or else?

The Seattle U. men's basketball team plays Western Washington at the Connolly Center tonight in the Pacific Northwest Athletic Conference (NAIA) season-opener for both teams.

Even though the entire conference schedule remains to be played, S.U. Coach Al Hairston, whose team has lost eight games in a row and has a 2-9 record, talked about tonight's contest in must-win terms.

"This is probably the most important game of our season," said Hairston, whose team returned four starters from the 1993-94 squad. "It's the opening game of league play, Western is picked to win our league and we've got them at home. We really need to win this one."

Hairston is hoping his team will respond favorably to playing its first home game since Nov. 29, when S.U. recorded its most recent victory, a 67-60 decision over Pacific Lutheran.

Scoring could be a problem for S.U. against Bellingham's Vikings . WWU leads the PNWAC in defense, holding opponents to an average of 68.7 points a game, which ranks ninth nationally among NAIA schools. S.U. has averaged 73 points a game.

WWU's two best-known players are senior guards Derric Croft and Tim Caviezel, who are averaging 14.5 and 11 points a game, respectively. Both players were local prep standouts (Croft at Class A Lynden, Caviezel at Class AA Mount Vernon) and both transferred to Western this season after stints in NCAA Division I programs. Caviezel attended Washington and Long Beach State, while Croft started at Skagit Valley C.C., then moved to San Diego State before joining Coach Brad Jackson at Western.

The Vikings (8-5), who are the defending PNWAC champions, are led in scoring by 6-foot-9 senior forward Harold Doyal (17.7 points), who attended Bellevue's Interlake.

S.U. will honor White

Seattle U. will retire the jersey of four-time NAIA All-American LaShanna White Saturday. White's No. 42 will be added to S.U.'s Wall of Fame during a ceremony between games of a double-header at the Connolly Center.

The S.U. men play Lewis-Clark State in the opener, followed by a women's game with St. Martin's. The ceremony should start about 7:40 p.m.

The only past S.U. stars similarly honored are John and Ed O'Brien, Elgin Baylor, Eddie Miles, Clint Richardson, Sue Turina and Sue Stimac.

White, from Shreveport, La., led S.U. to a 73-33 record in her four seasons. She holds all of S.U.'s game, season and career scoring records. In 1992, she became the first woman to lead the NAIA in scoring and rebounding.

Notes

The Seattle Pacific gymnastic team opens its season against Sacramento State at Brougham Pavilion Saturday (12:30 p.m.). The Falcons, who finished third at the 1994 USA Gymnastics Federation Collegiate Championships, return seven athletes, including All-Americans Mindy Ferguson of Albuquerque, N.M., Stacey Hastings of Midwest City, Okla., and Gina Moody of Altadena, Calif., from that team. Hastings is a senior, while Ferguson and Moody are sophomores. Also back for 1995 is senior Anna Sandberg of Eaton, Colo., who was the 1993 national champion on the balance beam. . . . After a disappointing season a year ago when he was hampered by an ankle injury, Fred Brown Jr. is off to a fine start for the Edmonds C.C. men's basketball team. The former Mercer Island High player is averaging 17.2 points and 3.1 assists for Coach Keith Kingsbury's Tritons, who are 2-1 in NWAACC play and 8-5 overall. The team's leading scorer is 6-6 sophomore Nate Smith of Mountlake Terrace), who is averaging 22.8 points a game, while hitting 72 percent of his shots. Smith, the NWAAC's leading rebounder (12.7 per game), scored 30 points against BCC last Wednesday, had 41 against Shoreline Saturday and 23 last night against Skagit Valley.