AVC COACH DOUBLING HIS PLEASURE : DAUGHTER'S TEAM ALSO GETS BERTH.

Byline: Kirby Lee Special to the Daily News

Antelope Valley College men's basketball coach Newton Chelette is playing the role of father and coach at the state junior college tournament in San Jose.

In addition to his coaching duties with Antelope Valley, Chelette is following his daughter, Amanda, a freshman guard on the College of the Canyons women's team, which also qualified for the state tournament.

``I have two sets of kids, my team and my daughter,'' Chelette said. ``When I knew we were both going, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. No words can describe it.''

In Lancaster, Antelope Valley defeated Chaffey 102-101 in overtime Saturday to earn its first berth in the state tournament since 1964. The eighth-year coach has a record of 197-63 and has led the Marauders to six conference titles.

Meanwhile in Valencia, the Canyons women's team opened the tournament with an 80-55 victory over Valley.

``The first thing I did when I stepped off the court was to call Antelope Valley and leave a message with the score,'' Amanda said. ``When I found out they won on a last-second shot I was more excited for him than I was for me because I know how much hard work he had put in.''

And the first remark by Chelette after he burst into the coaches' office after his team's dramatic victory was if anybody had heard the score of the Canyons women's game.

``When we finally talked later that evening, tears were exchanged,'' Newton said. ``We were both so happy for each other. I don't get to watch her too often.''

Amanda, though, savors the occasions when her father is able to make it to her games in between his busy schedule, which includes coaching and officiating high school and college football, basketball and baseball games.

``My coaches give me more playing time when he is in the stands,'' Amanda said with a laugh.

The Antelope Valley men (30-4), ranked second in the state, were scheduled to play Diablo Valley (31-5) in a quarterfinal at San Jose State on Thursday while the College of the Canyons women were in a matchup with Butte at De Anza College.

In other men's quarterfinals games scheduled Thursday, Los Angeles City College (27-6) was to face Skyline (26-7) and Cuesta was to play Fresno (30-3). The championship game will be played Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Antelope Valley avenged defeats by Chaffey and Riverside earlier this season to reach the state tournament.

The Marauders posted a 104-83 victory over Riverside in the second round and rallied for an overtime win over Chaffey on Saturday on a tip-in by Shaun Murray with four seconds to play.

``For me, personally, beating Chaffey was probably the greatest win of my coaching career,'' Chelette said.

The victory avenged a 99-95 defeat Jan. 8 and ended a string of five consecutive losses to the Panthers over the past five years.

Diablo Valley, the No. 3 seed from Northern California, advanced to the tournament with victories over Shasta (83-59), American River (63-66) and West Valley (81-70). The Bay Valley West Conference champions are led by sophomore Jason Williams, who averages 19.9 points and 9.0 rebounds.

Antelope Valley has been led in postseason by John Burrell. The freshman guard from Highland has averaged 30.3 points in the first three playoff games, including a career-high 34 points in the second round against Riverside.

Michael Hamelin, the Foothill Conference Northern Division Player of the Year, averaged 14.5 points and 5.7 assists and Jonathan George averaged 16.1 points and 8.4 rebounds for the Marauders.

``We've got a good matchup in the state tournament,'' Chelette said. ``We match up pretty well in size, not like Chaffey where we gave up 45-50 pounds per man. They like to control the tempo, but I actually think we have it easier than our bracket in the regionals. It wasn't easy facing two teams that have beaten you.''