Toro Cagers Hit the Road : Dominguez Hills to Face Slumping Bakersfield in First of Four Games

BAKERSFIELD —  Four consecutive road games begin here tonight for the Cal State Dominguez Hills men’s basketball team.

A packed house is expected at Civic Auditorium for the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. contest between the Toros (12-6 overall, 4-1 in the CCAA) and slumping Cal State Bakersfield (14-4, 3-2). Game time is 7:30.

How Dominguez Hills fares tonight may depend on how it handles the distractions that CCAA teams face in Civic. The antiquated facility, where the lights hang low, is a tough place to play. The home crowd loves to get into the game, and it is the only facility in the CCAA that allows the sale of beer and wine. Spectators sit so close to the floor that they have been known to refer to Toro Coach Dave Yanai by his first name.

Even the Roadrunners have given up on this facility. A new on-campus gymnasium, about seven miles south of the Civic’s downtown location, is expected to be open in time for the CCAA post-season tournament, should Bakersfield win the regular season title and earn the right to play host to it.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which entertains Dominguez Hills on Saturday night, plays in a campus gymnasium.

Yanai calls this trip one of the great adventures each year. But the bottom line, he will remind you, is that it will take total concentration to sweep this weekend’s slate.

Tonight’s contest will be the first of four games in eight days for the two teams, a stretch that many believe will play a major role in the outcome of the conference race. Bakersfield, the defending co-champion and a preseason CCAA favorite along with UC Riverside, slipped coming out of the gate. The Roadrunners, ranked 13th nationally in Division II, were upset by San Luis Obispo in their home opener two weeks ago, then fell to host Riverside Saturday night.

Second-place Dominguez Hills, on the other hand, came within a point of owning the top spot. The Toros’ only loss is to Riverside, 59-58. Dominguez Hills has won seven of its last eight games and has not allowed a conference opponent 60 points. The Toros rank fourth in the nation in defense.

But the team has been shooting poorly. In its last two games Dominguez Hills shot 36% from the field and 22.6% from 3-point territory. The result has been an average 15 points per game under its 70.3% average.

Most notably from 3-point range, Dominguez Hills has missed accuracy from sophomore guard Robert Barksdale, who has been slowed by the flu. Barksdale, whom many expect to be the league’s premier all-around player by the time he is a senior, made just one of six 3-point tries last week. In his past two games the Hawthorne High graduate connected on only seven of 20 field goals. By contrast, the streaky shooter set a school record in a preseason game at Azusa Pacific University by going 10 for 10 from the field.

Senior center Anthony Blackmon has also struggled from the field. A contender for most valuable player in the conference, Blackmon made just 11 of 32 field goal tries last week. His shooting attempts have been flat, the possible result of being tired from all the playing time he has received this season (he’s averaging 36.5 minutes a game) or a bruised knee suffered in the opening minutes of a win at Cal Poly Pomona a week and a half ago.

Blackmon, however, denied last week that the knee was affecting him, and that was evident by his rebounding totals of 16 in a 55-52 double overtime victory at Cal State Los Angeles and 12 in Saturday’s 56-51 win over visiting Cal State Northridge. Even with his shooting problems, Blackmon has averaged 19 points, 10 1/2 rebounds, three assists, three steals and about two blocked shots over the past six games.

“He’s a tough kid. . . . I have confidence in him,” Yanai said.

Dominguez Hills probably will attempt to take the ball inside the key more offensively in the next two games. Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo primarily use man-to-man defenses, and Bakersfield is expected to start a three-guard offense.

Realistically, Dominguez Hills can afford to split the two games and still have a good shot at making the CCAA postseason tournament. Bakersfield needs a win to keep San Luis Obispo and surprising Chapman College off its back. Both are also 3-2.