SportsScope : Muir’s Stacey Augmon and Two Other Cage Standouts Choose Their Colleges

Three boys high school basketball standouts from the San Gabriel Valley have signed national letters of intent to attend NCAA Division I colleges in the fall.

Topping the list is Muir High School’s 6-8 forward Stacey Augmon, who will play for the the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. In addition, 6-6 forward Eric McArthur of South Pasadena has signed with UC Santa Barbara and 6-4 point guard Oliver Cunningham of Ganesha will attend Stanford.

Augmon, one of the most heralded seniors in the valley, averaged 21.5 points and 12 rebounds to lead Muir to the CIF Southern Section 4-A Division title. A pre-season All-American selection by the Sporting News, he was voted the 4-A Division’s most valuable player and made the Los Angeles Times All-San Gabriel Valley squad. Augmon selected UNLV over Kansas.

McArthur, who selected Santa Barbara over Loyola Marymount, averaged 21.2 points and 18.3 rebounds to lead South Pasadena to the 2-A Division quarterfinals. McArthur, an All-CIF and Times All-San Gabriel Valley selection, was the leading rebounder in the San Gabriel Valley.

Cunningham, who gained more attention for his ball handling than his scoring, averaged 10 points and 12 assists to help Ganesha finish second to eventual state champion Wilson in the 3-A Division. The Giants had a 28-2 record.

The Azusa Pacific University women’s basketball team, which had its best record ever last year, has placed two players on the NAIA All-America team and two on the NAIA Academic All-American squad.

The Cougars, who finished with a 30-5 record and reached the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City, placed senior center Cindy DeYoung on the NAIA All-American third team. Senior guard Denise Duncan earned honorable mention.

DeYoung, who averaged 18.1 points and 10.9 rebounds to lead the Cougars in both statistics, also made the NAIA Academic All-American team along with senior forward Linda Kading. DeYoung had a 3.63 grade-point average and Kading was at 3.93 of a possible 4.0.

Duncan, Azusa Pacific’s second-leading career scorer behind DeYoung, averaged 14.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists as a senior.

Pomona-Pitzer College senior forward Dave DiCesaris, named the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference most valuable men’s basketball player, has been awarded an NCAA post-graduate scholarship for advanced study in economics.

DiCesaris, an honorable mention NCAA Division III All-American selection, averaged 22.1 points to lead Pomona-Pitzer to its first undisputed conference title in 68 years and its first share of the top spot since the 1957-58 season.

DiCesaris, who scored a school-record 488 points as a junior (19.5 average) and broke the mark with 530 as a senior, is planning to use the $2,000 scholarship to attend UCLA.