San Diego Mesa

Saddleback outscored visiting San Diego Mesa, 15-4, in the final seven minutes of the first half and completely dominated the second to advance to the state women's basketball quarterfinals with a 78-44 victory Saturday night. "We made a couple of crucial adjustments at halftime," Saddleback Coach Jack Single said. "We picked up their guards a little higher and pressured the weak side." The adjustments worked, as the Gauchos outscored San Diego Mesa, 43-21, in the second half.

Fullerton 30, San Diego Mesa 22--San Diego Mesa had the ball on Fullerton's 10-yard line with a a chance to tie the score on the last play of the game, but Donnie Gunritz sacked Mesa's Ariel Guitron and the Hornets (2-2) held on. With Fullerton leading, 23-22, in the fourth quarter, Frankie Salazar returned a kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown to give the Hornets an eight-point lead. Fullerton's Ron Murray caught touchdown passes of 14 and 26 yards from Geoff Berg.

Southwestern and San Diego Mesa colleges have accepted bids to play in the National Football Foundation Bowl, at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at San Diego City College. "It will be sudden-death game for the teams," said Harry West, bowl chairman and San Diego City athletic director. "The game is a natural and it should create some enthusiasm." The teams tied, 22-22, last Saturday. Riverside clinched the Mission Conference title by beating San Diego City, coupled with the Mesa-Southwestern tie.

Southwestern College can take sole possession of first place in the Mission Conference Saturday with a victory over Riverside. The teams, tied for first, play at Riverside at 7:30 p.m. Riverside had a one-game lead over Southwestern the last two weeks, but was upset by San Diego Mesa, 35-32, last Saturday. Southwestern's only loss was last month to Saddleback, 48-31. The game will feature some of the conference's best offensive players, including Riverside quarterback Keith Widener.

Duffy Daugherty, who set a national community college record for passing yardage this past season for Palomar College, appeared ready to sign with Idaho State of the I-AA Big Sky Conference. Until Monday, that is, when the University of Oregon called. Now Daugherty is waiting to see if the Ducks make an offer. "(Oregon) indicated they wanted to sign a JC quarterback and they haven't done so yet," Palomar Coach Tom Craft said. "They were very interested.

Nekeda Allen made the most of a limited amount of time, scoring a game-high 16 points to help Saddleback defeat Los Angeles Harbor, 80-54, Tuesday in the second round of the Southern California women's basketball playoffs. Allen, a freshman center whose asthma limits her playing time, made seven of nine shots from the field. She was at her best early. Saddleback was leading, 12-10, when Allen came in to make four baskets and two free throws.

In other Orange Empire Conference basketball games: Cypress 80, Fullerton 54--Andre Lamoureux scored 19 points and had 13 rebounds to lead host Cypress (23-3, 9-0) to its 10th consecutive victory. Vince Hizon had 12 and Eric Pauley 10 for Cypress. Rashone Lewis scored a game-high 30 points for Fullerton (10-16, 1-7).

Cypress College qualified for the state softball tournament by defeating San Diego Mesa, 2-1, in 10 innings Tuesday at Mesa. Cypress, which won the first game of the best-of-three Southern California Regional second-round series, 4-2, Saturday, will play College of San Mateo Friday at Golden West in the first round of the state tournament. It will be Cypress' first trip to the state tournament. Colleen Moore singled to open the 10th inning for Cypress and went to second on a passed ball.

Cypress goalkeeper Cody Bitterlich made a length of the pool shot in the final second of the first sudden-death overtime to give the Chargers a 12-10 victory over San Diego Mesa in an Orange Empire Conference water polo opener Tuesday at Cypress. Bitterlich stopped 13 shots by the Olympians during regulation and overtime. Cliff Popper and Joe Johnson scored three goals each for Cypress (6-1, 1-0).