The Salt Lake Tribune COLLEGE BASKETBALL Saturday, March 10, 2001 BIG WEST SEMIFINALS Utah State 67, Boise State 48 BIG SKY MEN’S TOURNAMENT Northridge Ends ’Cats’ Drive for Bas Bid Aggies’ ‘D’ Goes Bronco Busting ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Whatever the Weber State Wildcats accomplished in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference men’s basketball tournament was down.” BY MICHAEL C. LEWIS destroyed in the semifinals. long — se era. Utah State coach Stew Morrill said the longest stretch he could re- Cal State Northridge, the host team, blasted the Wildcats 91-74 at the Matadome in Northridge, Calif. CSN advances to tonight's title game against Eastern Washington,a 58-53 winner over Northern Arizona. The No.6 seed Wildcats had looked better than ever in Thursday’s86-67 defeatof Idaho State, but member was eight or nine minutes, and he has been a coach for nearly 30 years. faticn ispobats allowed. Sarecanaole: or holding seven straight opponents Defense “is a we have just been stressing real hard,” he under 60 points. But nothing can compare to what they did to Boise State on Friday night. Think shutout. The Aggies turned in such a suffocating perfor- mance in their 67-48 victory SV in the semifinals of the West Conference tournamentthat to even score in the final 12 basket, nota free throw. Not a single point for nearly a Utah State Padific ball as often as they shotit, 8, (ESPN) less stretch USU_ forced. before halftime. “We just tried to put the hammer down and have everybody ‘D’ up,” forward Shawn Daniels said. Oh, the hammer came down,all right. And the Broncos were thenail. ‘The game had been tied before they were driven into the hardwood and outofthe tournament. “They come atyou in waves,” BSU coach Rod Jensensaid. The victory made upfor the over- time loss that Utah State suffered in Boise two weeks ago, and swept the Aggies (26-5) into the tournament championship game for the second straight year. They will play Pacific — a surprise 7458 winner over ~season champion UC Irvine in the late semifinal — in thetitle game at 10:30 p.m. (MST) on ESPN. Surely, everybody will be wondering how long they can hold the Tigers (18-11) withouta point. “Emotion and energy, that’s the thing that gotit for us,” reserve for- harried into steals and Weber’s Third Loss to Idaho State Ends Season blocks by the frenzied Aggie turnovers (three) as he did baskets (four), while Kejuan Woods earned his 20 points on 7-for-20 shooting in the Broncos’ ing for the Conference. Western shot. They smelled it and wentfor the Forward Curtis Bobb led the chase, After straining overthe past nine games to find his rhythm — he was shooting only 37 percent and 22 percenton three-pointers since Feb. 8 — the senior erupted for 17 points on 5of-9 shooting and shut down Jackson. Healso hit three three-pointers, includingone with 7:18 left that gave the Aggies a 58-48 lead and buried BSU. “Wegota lot of momentum off that shot,” Daniels said. Daniels finished with 10 points and six boards, despite having to play with energy and emotion, it takes our defense to a completely the game because of foul trouble. Guards Bernard Rock and Tony Brown added 12 points apiece, and @ Continued from D-1 which beat Colorado three-point attempt with one second State on A sequence in the second half showed how poorly theUtes played at times. Bradley fouled Parmer on a they have to do to beatIdaho State in women’s basketball. Friday’s 56-55 defeat in the Big Kevork Djansezian/The Associated Press Utah State’s Brennan Ray,right, shoots over Boise State's Clint Hordemann duringthe first half of their semifinal game on Friday. were instrumental in frustrating the in that loss at BSU and seem to be playing their best. The defense has been amazing those past few games, even though theplayers said they had no clue they had shutout the Broncos for so long, and the reserves suddenly are all lookinglike starters. “Our goal was justto go ‘D’ up and In falling behind’ 28-23, the Utes shot 29 percent in the first half. At least, they were consistent — they five minutes into the secondhalf. But ‘The Johnsenbrothers, Britton and deff, were the only two Utah players to make more than onefield goal in thefirst half. Each hadfive points. career-high 24 points in Utah’s win New Mexico also was less than last week, dominated the secondhalf. stellar, shooting37 percent in the first Cougars MWCguard has never scored fewer than 16 points in hisfivegame MWCtournamentcareer, and averages 22.8 points at this gathering. whatwethink,”said Cleveland, whohas led the Cougars to a Wesley was noless critical, scoring 12 straight points at one 10-2 record in March the past stretch, including three three- two seasons.“Wehave no con- pointers that rattled’ Wyoming’s defense. “That’s what makes him a great player, that hecan pull back andhit shots,” said Wyoming coach Steve Mc- trol over anything but the au- tomatic selection. Sothat’s our That such a prize is even within reach is due entirely to Lyday and Wesley, who scored 55 of the Couga i Clain. “Defensively, we were right there, on him and Lyday. ... They played the way seniors are supposed to play.” and a remarkable30 oftheir 34 in the second half. More amaz- Without the seniors, the ing: Wesley played the final Cougars were doomed to repeat their Laramiecollapse. In January, BYU roared toan 18-point lead, then got buried by Wyoming’s avalanche of points. It almost happened again Friday, when the Cougars again took an 18-point lead, 53-35, early in 11:25 with four fouls, against a Wyoming offense that fre quently triedtoforce the ball at gameis about these seniors. They've doneit all year, and we're counting on them now,”Clevelandsaid. @ Continued from D-1 myself for being a wuss, excuse my language,” said BYUcenter Carolyn Beus, who led all scorers with 14 points, 10 in the second half. ‘The teams apparently traded jer- seys at halftime, though, becauseev erything that worked for Utah suddenly turned in favor of BYU, The Cougars fed theball into the middie, connecting on five layups within the first seven minutes, and outscored Utah 18-0 in thepaint in the second Not a bad strategy. Even Wesley and Lyday hadtoagree. “If oneof us is not shooting the ball, then something's wrong,” said Lyday. “We want the ball. Bec » if we don't shoot, then it's going to be put in the paper that we didn't play like we were supposed to.” half. Meanwhile,the Utes insisted on turning the ball over; at one point, Utah hadnine turnovers andonly six shotsin thehalf, and finishedwith 25 turnovers. The Cougar blitz cut Utah's 20point leadto 13 within thefirst two minutes “Those quick points were crucial, becauseit madeusrealizeit was still a ballgame,” Shippen said andit just kept building. With eight minutesleft in the game, BYU pulled within 44-43 and Stacy Jensentiedit at 46 with a three-pointer a coupleof minutes later. The Utes briefly righted them selves, but Jennifer Leitner’s layup with1:49 left tied it at 50, and Cougar guard Erin Thorn sank a three. pointer as the shotclock buzzer soundedwith exactly a minute left to give BYU its first lead since 3-0. “T was a little off-balance. I'm The Lobos did not score on their next seven possessions, but Utah was unable to capitalize. During an 11minute span, the Utes scored only four points. would have to namethe tournament after him. The All- @ Continued from D-1 MWC Women BYU Rallies To Shock Utes vide the halftime margin. Phil Cullen got Utah off to a fast start by hitting a three-pointer on the game’s first possession. Travis Spivey nailed another three-pointer one minute later to put the Utes up by four points. It’s in the paper now: Lyday played like he was sup} to. If he played any better, they Backin Final BYU's Mekeli Wesley, center, gets fouled by Wyoming's Josh Davis,left, during the Cougars’ Mountain West Conference semifinal win Friday. pointer with one secondleft to pro- turnovers andmissing shots. also missed six free throws. Rick Egan/The Salt Take’ ‘Tribune half. Wayland White led the Lobos with seven points and madea three- point advantage. Utah, meanwhile, was committing actually grabbed a three-point lead him, “This Clyder-Gardner, whoset a tournament record with nine three- pointers in two games, missed a layup in a tie game.In the ensuing scramble, WSUwas called for a foul with 2.1 seconds left. ISU then scored Clyderwith 19 points and Stephanie Stanger added 17. Mandi Carver the Bengals with 16 points. ~ Idaho State will play Montana for the championship tonight. Idaho State 56, Weber State 55 WEBER STATE (14-15) (Chyder-Gardner 7-12 0-2 19, Stanger 7-14 3:9 17, Howe 3-53-69,Geddes1-42.34,Sonveau1-301 2,Hessetbach 18 0-02, Sampson 1-1 0-0 2, HarwarchSharp0-1 0-0 0, Peterson 05000. TDAHOSTATE@44) Carver 613 40 16,Urbanski 48 1-110, Law 446 11 8, Vea 445 i en 94 00 ar 8018 ‘Wiens 1-20-02, Banks0-10-00,Gir Jonni0-5 ae ‘inning point from the free- throwline. “Our whole season has just been so close to greatness,” said WSU coach Carla Taylor. “I guess you can ‘12), Idaho St. 35 (Carver6), Auaiate—WeberSt. 13Peterson ee 10(Grin, Jonnie 5).Total foute—WeberSt.24, 7 SCENIC WEST. TOURNAMENT He scored on two consecutive posses- Burgess got the rebound and threw theball away. they never could sustain a consistent than ever for an upset. Kristen hot the Wildcats had a better chance see where thattook us,” Bobb said. sion to turn a 48-47lead into a five- effort. Parmer, who burned theUtes for a e-mail: mcl@sltrib.com BOISESTATE(17-14) Weote Fa 4216ston 4500 1Tea24128, ‘Stile 1-2 040 2, Nabors 2-6 Hordemann 3-8 ‘rong 13002en 12002 Tele802800 UTAH STATE: Daniols110-0 10,Bobb504417,Jonsson73-49, Rock 404-8 12, Brown 34844 12, Vincent 0-00-0 0, Vague0-20-00, Ray231.25, Bally 1-1 002, Johnson 0-000 0, Evans 0-000 0, Tota23-5016-2067. SL. 94, Bolo Si. 31, Three-point goale— Bose St 4-18Jackson 2, Nabors 1-4, Woods 1-8, Hrdemann 0-1, Amstrong0-1), Utah St §-10 (Babb 3-5, Brown 24, RockO‘ut—Tilman. Rebounds—Boise Si. 36 (Hordemann The Aggies have now won four straight since blowing a 14-pointlead nals was WSU’sthird loss to the In short? To the championship Utah State 67, Boise State 48 loose.” Sky Conference tournamentsemifi- Bengals this season by a total of eightpoints. And ISU has won all 17 aneae againstBig Sky opponents. this meeting at Pocatello, Ida- game. Bronco big men with their double. downsandslaps attheball. “We knew they wanted to drive,” Rock said. “So every time my man wanted to drive,I just tried to slap it left on the shotclock.Britton Johnsen then missed the first half of a oneand-one free-throw chance. After a New Mexico did the same, Chris Despite a bad first half, the Utes Thursday. spend theoffseason wondering what Athletic * “We got a couple of good looks,” Jensen said. “But at times, we couldn’t get a shot, much less make a be excited aboutit, because we have ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The Weber State Wildcats will game before leav- tippy-toe around the paint much of Utes MakeEarly Exit BIG SKY WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT defense. : Top-scoring forward Abe Jackson had almost as many ward Brennan Ray said. “When we other level. We're able to shut people that achievement. The Matadors ended WSU’s season quickly in the they seemed to cough up the 1030pm.MSt third of the game, never mind the five-minute score- apparently they were content with in that gameending stretch. Although they committed SIX turnovers and missed 16 shots in the span — three straight — Today'sGame minutes at the Anaheim Convention Center. Not a said. The most amazing part, perhaps, was how few shots the Broncos actually put up that? I just don’t know.” ‘They did against Idaho State, but they must not have saved any ofthe good stufffor Northridge. The Wildcats finished 15-14 and the secondhalf. ‘They cameclose. Wesley sat down a minute later with his fourth foul, and the Cougars went without a point for four minutes. Wyoming’s own se- nior, guard Brett McFall kept scoring on jump shots (19 points), Davis camealive witha and the Cowbevswhittled the lead to 10. Cleveland figured he had no choice but to risk Wesley’s fifth foul. Women Advanceto Finals THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The top seeds have advanced to the championship games in the Scenic West Athletic Conference men's and women’s basketball tournaments at Burns Arena in St. George. Tonight, No, 1 seed Snow College will play Utah Valley State College in the women’sfinal at 6 p.m. And Dixie State College, the country’s No. l-ranked men’s team, will play Southern Idahoat 8 p.m. In Friday’s women’s semifinals, UVSC pounded Southern Idaho 68-47 and Snow downed Salt Lake Community College 73-51. Kristen Saliby scored 17 points for UVSC, Mickey Folsom added 13 and Ashleigh Chamberlain and Miriam Sy had 10 each. In the men’s semifinals, Southern Idaho edged Snow 73-70 in overtime and Dixie State topped UVSC 68-55. David Bennett led Snow with 21 points, Travis Visentin added 14 and Brandon Moore had 12. Southern Idahois ranked No. 4in the country, yet either the Golden Eagles or Dixie State will have to stay home from the national tournamentin Hutchinson, Kan. “T told him, ‘Under no cir- cumstances are you to foul,’” Cleveland said. “But we had to havehis presence in there, on MWC WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT both ends.” It worked. Wyoming kept coming,once getting as close as 61-56, but the Cougars kept feeding Lyday and Wesley. That pair scored 28 straight Cougar points, including a dozenin thelast five minutes to foil the comeback. “If you put it in someone else’s hands, you never know,” Lydaysaid. “I try hard to step up in big games.” Colorado State Reaches Final With Win Over New Mexico. COMBINED NEWSSERVICES LAS VEGAS Colorado State women’s basketball team improved to 23-6 and advanced to thefinals of the Mountain West Conference e-mail: pmiller@sltrib.com championship with a 70-65 victory BYU 77, Wyoming 66 over the Lobos of New Mexico this afternoon, WwroMING (20-8) Mingo 36 2.9 8, Dave 5-12 48 14, Noon ‘Amvac3-7 359, McMillan 1-7 0-02, Baoy6-11 22 14 Udezue 0-2 040 0, Meal 5-97-9 19, Comer 0-1 0-00, ‘Totals 22-55 18-27 66. BRIGHAM YOUNG ight 0-00-00, Wesley 8-14 34 28, Whiting 37 aor payete ist pe 12002en 0, Nietion 2.3 1-2 5, Montague 0-0 Cran00228 Homd000 baw 1000 Totals 22-45 24:27 77, Young 43, Wyoming 31 ‘Three-point 2-11 (McFall 25, Davis 0-1, Baley 0-1, Comer 0-1, Mehdlian 0-2) Yom $13 haa ot 4, ares 38, ier 24, Hanean teraate afar (Cooper 7). couple of dunks (he scored 14) Dixie Men, Snow, UVSC 3, Baga Yaag 13 (hag 6). Toad fetetyoney 21 Bagham Young Four players scored in double figures for the Rams, with Ashley Augspurger leading with 13 points. Elizabeth English and Lisa Narkiewicz chipped in 12 points and Shannon Strecker scored 10. Angie Gorton and Strecker tied with a game-high nine rebounds. New Mexico was led by Molly McKinnon and Cristal Garcia with 13 points each, and Miranda Sanchez scored 11. Nikki Heckroth led the Lobos with five rebounds. Thefirst-half of the game was a back-and-forth affair, with no team taking more than a four-point lead. Freshman Joy Jenkins hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Rams a 34-32 halftime advantage. Both teams made six threepointers in the first halfand were an identical 6-for-12 from beyond the arc, Shootingoverall for both teams was very similar, with the Rams oe 13-0f-27 and the Lobos 12-of+with 620 let tn the game, Nark- iewicz fouled out of the game after tallying 12 points and four re bounds, Today marked the thirdstraight game she has scored in doublefigures for the Rams. Colorado State advances to the championship game to play BYU, a surprise 57-50 winner over Utah. Tip-off is scheduled for 9:30 tonight and will follow championship. the men's Kristina Andersen, who scored 10 pointsinthefirst halfand none in the second, “The loss has a lot more to do probably lucky it went in,” Thorn said. “I'm so drained. We went through alot of energy and emotion out there.” with how weplayed than it does BYU. Wedidn't makeour free throws,ei- That's a danger, Shippensaid,be- cause the Cougars did the samelast ther[they were18-0f-28}, and BYU had year fought their way to thefinal, then sleepwalked through the cham: pionship game. “We need to get our rest, We'reall pretty tired,” he said, nothingtodowith ourfree throws.” aren't worried either. Their surpris- Howe 13.00 2, Oupatorpe 310 1-0 0, Bown 67 25 14 Thom31044 13, Jorman4132.3 13, Shippen1 2:22. Whetan 09.22 2, Letra 1.9 12.3, Chovaman 00 0-0 0 Totahe 1840 421 67 UTAH 63) ‘Andersen 3452-4 10, Ewer 48 1:9 9, Bechonan 2.0 7-8 11, Strerran 2.2 48 8, Hebert 02 00 0, Goons 1-7 1-2 3, McColl 129.35, Stak 02.0000, RedCantagrto 25 004 Totate 15 evan Hattine-—Uah 40, Bigham You 20. Thewe-point (goat Brigham Young 7-18 Unrmen 3-4, To 3-0, Onghoepe 13), Ua219 Aeon 259, 1, Herbt 0-2, Da 02, Gitom 08, Feded ot-tameReet Giger Young 33 Onphepe ©, 40 (cCol © fats tar ae tt 9 Tota feud Beiggam Your20, Utah / e-mail: pmiller@sltrib.com The Utes aren't tired, and they BYU 57, Utah 50 (BRUGHAM YOUNG (16-11) ingly close 53-50 first-round victory over winless Air Force,followed by a memorable collapse against BYU, is nothing to be alarmed about, they insisted, ‘We've lost one game in our last 15 {actually 16},” Utah coach ElaineEl liott bristled. “I don't know why I needto be concerned about whatthat bodes for us.” “We just weren't smart with the basketball,” said Utah forward y Rick ‘The Salt Lake Tribune The BYU bench celebrates their win over Utah as time runs out.