CANYONS NOTEBOOK: CONFIDENCE KEY FACTOR FOR STREAKING CANYON.

Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Maintaining the optimum level of confidence is a tough balancing act. Not enough confidence, and failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Too much, and you've underestimated your weaknesses.

Keeping the right balance is one of the most difficult challenges the College of the Canyons women's basketball team faces. But if the Cougars, winners of seven consecutive games, come across as a bit overconfident lately, who can blame them?

COC seems to keep getting better, as was evident in its most-recent victory, a 97-54 win against visiting Glendale in a Western State Conference Southern Division game. The victory margin was 18 points greater than when the teams met three weeks ago.

``It's getting hard to convince them that they're not invincible,'' said COC coach Greg Herrick, whose first-place Cougars improved to 7-0 in conference (20-6 overall) and extended their divisional winning streak to 19 games. The school record for consecutive divisional victories is 24, which COC can tie this season. The Cougars play host to Valley tonight at 7:30 for the first of five remaining Southern Division games. Four of the games are at home, where COC has won 21 in a row.

Vonetta Lanier, the team's most-consistent scorer, had 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting in its most-recent victory. Siosi Tuli, who scored 16 points, was 8 for 8 from the field.

COC's 76-67 victory over Bakersfield on Jan. 24 was its first by fewer than 10 points.

Tuli, who was in foul trouble and missed most of the second half, scored six points in the final five minutes to finish with a team-high 19 points, and Lanier had 17 points.

--Big numbers: The perennially high-scoring Cougars lead the state, averaging 84 points per game. They are averaging 92.7 points per game in Western State Conference play to lead the conference.

The Cougars, who were second in the state in scoring last season, have been the state's top scoring team twice in the last six seasons.

--Tough assignment: One of the keys for the Cougars in their most-recent victory was shutting down Marilyn Dubon. Lanier and Lar Chouljian, who drew the tough defensive assignment, limited Dubon, one of the league's leading scorers, to seven points.

Tonight's opponent, Valley (19-10, 4-3), features two of the most-explosive scorers in the conference, Itricia Ewells and Michelle Tompkins. In COC's 80-67 victory over L.A. Valley three weeks ago, Ewells scored 24 points, but Tompkins was held to five.

--Big contributions: Crucial to the Cougars' improved play in recent weeks have been the off-the-bench contributions of several freshmen.

Forwards Rasheeda Gray and L'Tonya Robnett, who each had 10 rebounds against Glendale, have been especially productive since conference play began in early January.

Robnett is averaging 6.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, but she's averaging 8.7 points and 8.1 rebounds in conference. Gray is averaging 8.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in conference, compared to 7.5 points and 4.1 rebounds overall.

Other key freshmen contributors have been Lisa Hawkins and Ofolangi Mailangi.