Dominguez Hills’ Winning Streak Ends at Bakersfield

BAKERSFIELD — When schedulemakers put together this season’s California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball schedule, officials at Cal State Bakersfield winced.

Because Cal State Northridge left the conference to compete in Division I this season, the CCAA was left with only seven teams. That meant Bakersfield would have to play back-to-back games each weekend and the rest of the conference teams would have to play only one game.

But after the Roadrunners soundly defeated Cal State Dominguez Hills, 78-62, Saturday night, a lot of the critics in Bakersfield have gone silent. That is because the victory came after Bakersfield’s 83-70 win over Chapman College in Orange Friday night.

It is becoming clear that Bakersfield, the defending conference champion and national runner-up last season, isn’t about to relinquish its title without a fight, although preseason polls said differently.

“(The schedule thing) is a factor, but we have a pretty deep bench,” Bakersfield Coach Pat Douglass said. “Right now I don’t think it is really going to be a (big deal) for us.”

Bakersfield (11-4 overall, 2-0 in the conference), has now won 10 of 11 games. Dominguez Hills (11-5, 0-1) had a school-record, nine-game winning streak snapped.

Perhaps more disturbing to Coach Dave Yanai is that the Toros have not held an opponent under 71 points in their past six games. In mid-December Dominguez Hills, long known for its defense, was ranked seventh in the nation in defense.

“We just didn’t play very well,” Yanai said. “Defensively, we allowed them to do certain things that their players do very well and get the types of shots that we should not allow opponents to get.”

Bakersfield did a good job of shutting down Dominguez Hills’ inside game. The Toros had one layup in the first 20 minutes.

“In the first 10 minutes we were our own worst enemy,” Yanai said. “We let Bakersfield own the floor.”

The Roadrunners trailed briefly, 22-21, with 9:51 left in the first half, but Bakersfield took over from that point, using a balanced attack to build leads as big as 18 points.

Dominguez Hills, which trailed, 56-38, with 13:50 to go, took advantage of several Roadrunner fouls and turnovers to crawl back into contention. A free throw by the Toros’ Norm Francis with 5:52 to go cut the lead to 65-56.

But the Roadrunners used a deliberate offense the rest of the game to protect the lead.