Phillips’ Homecoming a Hit

Born and reared in Northridge, Danny Phillips appears to have been reborn in his hometown.

Phillips, 20, is off to a sensational start as cleanup hitter and center fielder at Cal State Northridge. In the Matadors’ first seven games, he is batting .412 with four doubles, three home runs and 15 runs batted in.

A converted third baseman, he has handled 13 chances flawlessly and is exhibiting good range and a strong arm.

“He’s getting an opportunity,” Coach Mike Batesole said.

Phillips finally is displaying the form at the Division I level expected of him when attended Cal State Fullerton out of Chatsworth High.

He didn’t play well as a freshman and bolted for Pierce College, helping the Brahmas win a Western State Conference co-championship last season.

A good student, Phillips completed his associate’s degree and transferred to Northridge for a new beginning.

A strong season for Phillips, who was scouted heavily at Chatsworth, could make him a fairly high draft choice in June.

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The Northridge women’s basketball team begins a three-game road stretch that will be key to its quest for the Big Sky Conference championship.

The Matadors (13-6, 7-2 in conference play) are one game behind Montana State (14-5, 8-1), having handed the Bobcats their only conference loss, on Jan. 14 at Northridge.

Northridge plays at Montana State on Feb. 13, but the Matadors cannot overlook games at Northern Arizona on Saturday and at Montana on Feb. 11.

A primary reason for Northridge’s success has been its ability to win on nights when All-American guard Edniesha Curry isn’t at her best.

Curry leads the conference with a 19.3 scoring average and 39% three-point shooting, but others are among Big Sky leaders as well.

Point guard Tina Greer is second with 49 steals and tied for third with a 4.1 assist average. She averages 9.4 points.

Forward Lynda Amari, a junior from Ventura College, is second in the conference with 38 steals, third with 17 blocked shots and third in free-throw percentage at 77.6%. She averages 10.7 points.

Junior center Keisha Harris is fourth in blocked shots with 15 and ninth in rebounds with 114.

Sophomore guard LaShaunda Fowler is fifth with 1.7 steals per game and sophomore guard Natalia Jonas is seventh with 1.6 steals.

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By becoming a Big Sky championship-caliber football team last season, Northridge’s recruiting power increased dramatically, as evidenced by the team’s signings on Wednesday.

But Coach Ron Ponciano wasn’t thrilled to hear that two Big Sky schools had bad-mouthed Northridge to recruits, who later told the Matadors.

“The things you hear are just the worst,” Ponciano said.

That means two things:

One, other Big Sky teams are growing more concerned, knowing Northridge is no longer a pretender and is able to battle them for top recruits.

Two, with a new stadium and improved facilities, the Matadors would out-recruit most Big Sky schools. Northridge would have an excellent chance of landing blue-chip high school players in the region, who in the past often chose to play college football elsewhere.

“[The recruiting war] would be over,” Ponciano said. “We wouldn’t lose anybody when we are comparing apples to apples. . .

“But our whole thing is, we want to win the Big Sky championship before the new stadium comes in.”

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Coming to L.A. apparently worried Isaac Aronson, a lineman from Curtis High in Tacoma, Wash., who signed with the Matadors on Wednesday.

Ponciano said he asked Aronson what concerned him the most about Northridge.

“Oh, the traffic,” Aronson said. “He said, ‘Coach, you know they drive 100 miles an hour on the freeways.’ ”

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If the Matadors want to improve recruiting next year, they might want to show a little more Southern hospitality.

Consider, y’all, how some Southern colleges approach attracting top high school football players:

At Georgia, they have a group of about 70 female students--the “Georgia Girls”--who spend their winter weekends taking recruits to dinner.

Other schools with similar groups are Alabama (Bama Belles), Tennessee (Vol Hostesses), Florida (Gator Guides) and Clemson (Tiger PAWS).

The NCAA has no objection.

All right, then. How about the Matador Maidens?

Staff writers Fernando Dominguez and Steve Henson contributed to this notebook.