Small Colleges / Alan Drooz : Fuller Knew His Knee Could Not Tear Him Away From Basketball

UC Riverside won the men’s half of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s first postseason basketball tournament Saturday, surviving a hostile San Luis Obispo crowd to defeat the Mustangs, 72-71, mainly on the play of stars Robert Jimerson and Paul Kapturkiewicz.

Center Craig Fuller scored only two points in the championship game, but Fuller’s presence has been an inspirational factor for the Highlanders all season.

After having three knee operations, Fuller was advised by doctors to give up the game. Instead, he has made it through the season, playing about 19 minutes a game, and will be playing Friday when Riverside plays Alaska Anchorage in the Division II NCAA regional.

“I think Craig is probably a candidate for the television program ‘That’s Incredible!’ ” Riverside trainer Vic De Leeuw said.

Fuller averages about five points and four rebounds a game and leads the team in blocked shots.

Fuller, a star 6-8 center at Banning High School in Riverside County, had Pacific 10 hopes but had already undergone his second operation for torn ligaments--he had one on each knee--when he graduated, so he headed to Arizona Western College to complete his rehabilitation in 1979.

From there he went to Oxnard College, where he made the all-conference team and landed a scholarship to Cal State Fullerton. He averaged five points and six rebounds playing beside Leon Wood and confidently entered his senior year--only to suffer a severe injury to the right knee in a pickup game.

“I was told I should hang it up,” Fuller said. “But I felt like I wanted to play again. The desire was there.”

Two years and countless hours of rehabilitation later, Fuller approached Riverside Coach John Masi--who had recruited him in high school--for one last chance. Though Fuller has time and mobility limitations, his last comeback has worked out well for all concerned.

Besides practice, Fuller spends 1 1/2 hours a day doing weight work and getting treatments on his knees, which he ices for 20 minutes after workouts. During games, Fuller sheds the heavy braces he uses in practice but is swathed in 30 yards of elastic tape and light-weight braces.

Jimerson, Fuller’s roommate, called Fuller, “our spiritual leader, our motivator.”

Fuller, who once had professional hopes, is completing a degree in sociology and hopes to land a job in recreation work. “School is the challenge now,” he said. “Basketball has become easy.”

Playoff update: Cal State Hayward, the defending regional champion, will be the site for the men’s Division II playoffs Friday and Saturday.

Hayward, with a 22-7 record, will play Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (23-6), and Riverside (23-6) will play Alaska Anchorage (21-9).

The women’s regional is a three-team affair, with top-seeded Cal Poly Pomona having earned a bye. Cal State Northridge, the CCAA runner-up, will play UC Davis (17-9) in the opener at Northridge Saturday. The winner will play Pomona (26-3) Tuesday night at Pomona.

Top-rated Pomona will be making its 12th consecutive postseason appearance and is 12-2 in NCAA tournament play. Coach Darlene May’s team has won 19 straight games.

The Azusa Pacific women (29-4) won the NAIA District III championship with a 64-61 victory over Fresno Pacific and will play Fort Lewis College (20-7) at Durango, Colo., Thursday for the right to be among 16 teams in the NAIA national tournament in Kansas City. Azusa has won a school-record 16 straight games and its 29 victories are the most ever in District III.

Cal State Bakersfield finished third nationally in Division II wrestling, behind champion Southern Illinois Edwardsville and Edinboro State of Pennsylvania.

The Roadrunners had three individual winners who will advance to the Division I finals by virtue of their Division II titles: Pat Huyck at 158 pounds, Darryl Pope at 167 and Mavin Jones at 177. The Division I tournament is set for March 13-15 in Iowa City.

Claremont-Mudd will take a strong contingent to the Division III swimming meet March 13-15 in Canton, Ohio, thanks to the Stags’ fifth consecutive Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title.

The Stags won 16 of the 18 events and qualified 18 swimmers for the national meet, giving Coach Mike Sutton some hope of beating three-time champion Kenyon of Ohio.

Junior Dave Lewis broke a 10-year-old school record, swimming the 100-yard butterfly in 51.73 seconds.

The Stags also had three meet records: Bill Johnson in the 100 freestyle, Tom Harrison in the 200 butterfly and Harrison, Johnson, Bob Moore and Erik Jensen in the 400 freestyle relay.

Johnson and Harrison may have been the top SCIAC performers, Johnson winning four individual titles and a relay, and Harrison three individuals and a relay.

Small College Notes

Carol Spanks recently won her 300th game as women’s softball coach at Cal Poly Pomona. She has the top-ranked Division I team in her eighth season at Pomona. . . . Becky Miller of Biola and Cindy DeYoung of Azusa Pacific have been named to the NAIA All-District III basketball first team for the fourth straight year. Azusa’s Denise Duncan was named to the first team for the second straight year. . . . Miller was named player of the year, and Azusa’s Sue Hebel was named coach of the year for the second straight year. . . . The District III men don’t name a formal player of the year, but Deon Richard of Point Loma Nazarene was chosen the outstanding player on the all-district team. Chet Kammerer of Westmont is coach of the year. . . . Dave DeCesaris of Pomona-Pitzer and Julie Curtis of Whittier are the male and female SCIAC basketball players of the year. Curtis, a junior, led Whittier to its seventh straight women’s title. . . . Cal Poly San Luis Obispo freshman Celeste Paquette set a school record with her discus throw of 154-2, and junior teammate Sharon Hanson established a new mark in 400 low hurdles of 60.7. Both records were set against UC Santa Barbara. . . . The Cal Poly Pomona women’s gymnastics team, hoping to qualify for the NCAA regional for the first time, scored a school-record 162.7 points in a meet last weekend.