Point guard Tokoro putting up points
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Almost everywhere she goes on the Cal State-Los Angeles campus, Monica Tokoro carries a bag with a basketball inside.
Sscott Quintard • CSULA sports information
Any place she can, on outdoor courts or even in some buildings, she takes the ball out and practices dribbling.
Sophomore Monica Tokoro scored a school-record 43 points.
It is that kind of commitment, her coaches say, that has helped Tokoro, a 2001 Iolani School graduate, become one of the highest-scoring women's college basketball players in America.
Tokoro, a sophomore point guard, scored a Cal State-L.A. record 43 points Friday night and followed it with 33 the next night for a 76-point weekend that moved her into third place nationally in NCAA Division II scoring.
She has averaged 23.4 points in 15 games and has surpassed 30 five times.
"Nobody in our league can stop her off the dribble," Cal State-L.A. assistant coach Gary Plunkett said yesterday. "She can penetrate on any team, on any defender, left or right.
Monica Tokoro's season statistics for Cal State-L.A.: • 15 games • Plays 35.9 of 40 minutes per game. • Makes 51.6 percent of all her field-goal attempts (142-of-275) • Makes half her 3-point goal attempts (13-of-26) • Makes 81.8 percent of her free-throw attempts (54-of-66) • At 5 feet 4, averages 3.3 rebounds per game • 6.2 assists per game (93 assists vs. 73 turnovers) • 23.4 points per game (351 points)
"She can create shots for others — Monica gets the ball to them — or she can go all the way for pull-up jumpers and layups. She definitely has a complete game."
Monica by the numbers
Tokoro is 12th nationally in assists, with 6.2 per game.
In her 43-point game Friday at Cal State-Stanislaus, Tokoro "penetrated at will and got a lot of 'and one' plays (basket and free throw)," Plunkett said. She made 14 of 16 from the foul line.
Her 33 points on Saturday came at Cal State-Bakersfield (14-1), the 11th-ranked team in Division II.
For the two-game weekend, Tokoro's shooting totals were 26-of-47 from the field (including 5-of-6 on 3-pointers) and 19-of-21 free throws.
Her season field-goal percentage of 51.6 ranks third in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
Tokoro explains her offensive strategy simply: "I step back. If the defensive player doesn't step up, I shoot. If they do, I drive because they are off balance."
The 43 points happened, Tokoro said, because "they weren't doubling me as much" and in spite of a sore throat and stuffy nose that was escalating into a cold yesterday. "I'm sick," she said.
Northwest Missouri State coach Gene Steinmeyer got sick of watching Tokoro in the Hoop N Surf Classic in Honolulu in December. "We tried everything," he said, but Tokoro scored 32 points and had 12 assists against his team.
"We were way ahead with four minutes left — a normal game would be over, but not against Monica," Steinmeyer said. "Our lead went from 24 to 12 in a minute and we had to put our starters back in."
Steinmeyer's team has prolific shot blockers. "The day before we stuffed Central Arkansas' All-American point candidate four times. But Monica's got a sixth sense; she doesn't allow herself to get into position to get blocked," he said.
"Her step-back jumper is a killer," Steinmeyer said. "If you crowd her, she'll take you off the dribble. If you get help, she'll dish it off to one of her post players."
The step-back jumper is a new shot Tokoro has learned since high school, she said. "I did a lot of extra hard work" over the summer, and practiced often with University of California-Santa Barbara's Brandy Richardson. "She lives two minutes from me" in 'Aiea, Tokoro said.
Extra work seems to be Tokoro's trademark. After every afternoon's three-hour practice, she goes to her campus apartment for dinner (she loves salads), and then to 24-Hour Fitness, where she runs on a treadmill for an hour and lifts weights.
She also has been spotted in the aerobics room, dribbling her omnipresent basketball and studying her reflection in the full-wall mirrors as she creates new moves.
OVERTIME: Despite all the time Monica Tokoro spends on basketball, she earned straight As (4.0 GPA) in the fall semester and has been nominated for Academic All-American. ... Tokoro's 43 points last Friday may be the most by a female resident of Hawai'i in a college game. Nani Flores of Pearl City scored 34 for the University of Hawai'i in 1994. The UH Wahine record is 46 by Judy Mosley against Pacific in 1989. ... Brandy Richardson leads Big West Conference rebounding with 9.5 per game. ... Tokoro is 5 feet 4, 120 pounds, almost the same weight as when she led the Interscholastic League of Honolulu in scoring three times in four years. "She has put on a lot of muscle in her upper body in the past year," assistant coach Gary Plunkett said. "She has the strength and balance to take bumps on her penetrations and still follow through for a shot. ... With her attitude and the way she works, she is the kind of player every coach dreams to have."
