AVC BEAT: MARAUDERS ARE WITHIN REACH : BOTH TEAMS ATOP STANDINGS.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Daily News Staff Writer

Saturday was Judgment Night for Antelope Valley College's basketball teams.

At Marauder Gym, the AVC men sent a message: the Foothill Conference North championship still belongs to the Marauders until someone can beat them.

Over in Rancho Cucamonga, the AVC women proved the Marauders can not only finish a key road game without wilting, but can also leave town a winner.

Hence, following the men's 79-75 victory over Desert and the women's 61-58 decision at Chaffey, both AVC teams sit atop their respective conference standings.

The Marauder men, despite suffering through the least productive season of coach Newton Chelette's decade at the school, have the inside track on a fifth straight conference crown. At 3-0 with five games remaining, AVC (12-14 overall) can really take command with a win tonight at Cerro Coso, which is tied with Desert at 2-1.

``I would say it can't be much better than it is for us now,'' Chelette said. ``And it would be really good by Wednesday (with a win in Ridgecrest).''

Saturday's victory against a 17-11 Desert team was arguably the Marauders' most impressive of the season. They've met some of the state's best teams but lost to Chaffey, Long Beach, Mt. San Jacinto, Porterville and Bakersfield.

``We really hadn't beaten anyone that's better than us,'' said freshman guard Tony Gaeta. ``We definitely didn't start that well in the preseason.''

With Desert and Cerro Coso (which already lost to the former) set to play each other in the second round of conference play, a Marauders' win tonight would be potentially devastating to their closest competitors.

``We know Cerro Coso lost to Desert and one of those teams will lose when they play again,'' Gaeta said. ``This is another big game for us.''

The way Chelette has stressed the eight games representing the conference schedule, the Marauders have shaken off the doldrums stemming from a 9-14 nonleague season. AVC is working on a string of nine straight 20-win seasons under Chelette that would end unless the Marauders make a deep postseason run.

``I think (the players) know what we have to do now and what we want to do,'' Chelette said. ``Our confidence level is growing.''

Sophomore guard Charles Austin, one Marauder who's stepped up his game during conference play, is unwilling to be a part of a team that fails to maintain the school's grip on the league.

``This is our conference,'' Austin said. ``We want to win it again.''

The same can be said for the AVC women, although they haven't been this close to a championship since 1992.

AVC's 6-0 start in Foothill Conference play deteriorated quickly with three straight disappointing losses on the road to San Bernardino Valley, Rio Hondo and Desert. A common thread in each game: The Marauders fell apart in the final minutes.

But AVC (8-3, 17-10) finished with a kick on Saturday, outscoring Chaffey 21-10 down the stretch to forge a three-way tie for first with the Panthers and Desert. The Marauders swept perennial power Chaffey for the first time in Lott's nine-year tenure.

Lott turned to psychology to transform her Marauders into road warriors.

``We just had to be like real Marauders (desert nomads of the ancient Middle East) and steal a game from somebody,'' said Lott, who convinced the team to use black felt pens as `war paint'. Each player went to battle with a streak behind her ear.

``We did learn some lessons,'' Lott said of the three straight losses away from home. Now AVC gets three of the last five games at Marauder Gym, where the Marauders have lost just once in eight tries.

AVC's attack, once dominated by post players Davia Shannon and Ebony Davis, has become a group effort. When Shannon was hobbled by an ankle injury in January it was guard Erica Yazzie who stepped up her game. Now it's Camina Stevenson, who scored 22 in the Chaffey win one game after burying a school-record-tying eight 3-pointers (26 points total), in an 80-64 home-court win over Citrus.

``When you have just eight players like we do you have to put eight quality products on the floor,'' Lott said. ``We've got all eight kids contributing right now.''

New addition: Jimmy White, a 6-foot-5 swingman who attended Western High in Las Vegas, enrolled at AVC for the spring semester and will be eligible next season to play for Chelette.