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Show PAGE 8 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL SPORTS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2002 »>MEN’S BASKETBALL SU road woes continue BY MARK JONES “Jason [Baker] stepped up and played well,” Evans said. “He made some shots and he’s not bashful. I want him to shoot the basketball though and he did a great job tonight.” Brian Gardner was the only other ’Bnrd in double figutes with 13 points. Dan Beus was held to just six poinits on 1-0f-7 shooting. Valpo's Barton led Valpo with a team-high 23 points. SUU was also in action on Thursday . night at Western Illinois and it didn’t go SPORTS EDITOR The SUU men’s basketball team has lost the first two games on its three-game road trip. The "Birds fell at Valparaiso 71-64 Saturday night as the Crusaders hit 13-of-14 free throws down the stretch to hold the "Birds off. Jason Baker scored a career- high 24 points, all in the second half, to lead SUU, which falls to 6-5 in the Mid-Con and 9-14 in the Mid Con. SUU was playing short handed in the game as Stan Johnson is still nursing a foot injury and didn’t make the trip, Jeff Dorenbosch also didn’t make the trip as he was home to be his wife who is expecting a baby, and Kevin Henry was out with the flu, With only eight players seeing action for the 'Birds, SUU ran a deliberate offense in the first half, working the clock inside 20 seconds on each possession before taking a shot. The strategy worked for the most part, despite turning the ball over 12 times SUU remained in the game. However, with less than two minutes remaining in the first half Valpo started to break the game open as they built the Jead to as many as 11 points on back-to-back three-point shots by Lubos Barton. 4 “I wanted to try to hold the ball and slow them down in the first half,” coach Bill Evans said. “Now in hindsight 'm not sure if that was a good idea, but we didn’t want to get into an up-and-down the court game with them, espcially . since we were a couple of players short.” In the second half; Valpo built its lead to as many as 17 well for the 'Birds as the Leathernecks gave the "Birds an 81-70 loss. The Leathernecks did their damage from the outside as WIU’s Quintin Mitchell hit a school-record nine threepointers and scored a career-high 31 points as WIU picked up just its second conference win of the season. WIU led the entire game as the tied a school record with 15 three-pointers to hurt any chances the 'Birds may have had to get their third road wm of the season. Leading 38-33 at halftime, thc * Leathernecks extended their lead to as many as 15 points late in the game before settling on the 11-point win, ‘We weren't very good defensively : [Thursday night],” Evans said. “We didn’t get.out on shooters very well and Western [llinois is a good shooting team. We didn’t contest the shots we needed to and we didn’t do a very good job Dan Beus scored 18 polnts in the 81 -70 loss at Western Illlnols Thursday rebounding the basketball either.” and scored six points and pulled down six rebounds in the 71-64 defeat at Gardner led SUU with 19 points, Beus Valpo Saturday. Beus and the rest of the 'Birds will conclude their three with 18 points and Jay Collins added 15 game road trip with a game at Chicago State on Saturday. and a career-high six assists. For the first time in 41 games Beus failed to pull Saturday evening when SUU visits Chicago State. down a single rebound. SUU will' return home to conclude the regular season with The Leatherdecks outrebounded the 'Birds 26-17 in the games against UMKC and Oral Roberts. SUU’s only road wins game, including 16-10 advantage on the defensive glass. of the season came at UMKC and Oral Roberts. WIU hit 62.5 percent of its three-point shots against the SUU will play UMKC on Feb. 21 at 7:05 p.m. Two nights "Birds, which was the best by an SUU opponent this season. later the 'Birds will conclude the regular season on Feb. 23 ‘I didn’t have much problem with the way we played on. against Oral Roberts at 7:35 p.m. Both games will be played the offensive end,” Evans said. “We hit 26-0f-47 shots and 8in the Centrum Arena. The 'Birds will then prepare for the of-16 three-pointers, but the things we wanted to do on Mid-Con tournament in Fort Wayne, Ind., March 3-5. The defense we didn’t do and we didn’t do a very good job of winner of the tournament receives an automatic berth to the controlling the tempo of the game.” NCAA toutnament. With the two losses, the Thunderbirds fall to 6-5 in the All SUU games can be heard on 590 AM with Art Challis Mid-Con and 9-14 overall and will be in action again on doing the play-by-play. points at 45-28 with 14 minutes to play, but that was Baker’s cue. Baker hit back-to-back shots to cut the deficit to 13 and he hit his next 6-of-7 shots for 14 points to pull the 'Birds to within four at 54-50 with 3:36 remaining, The Crusaders would once again push the lead back into double digits at 60-50. SUU would still not go away as it would cut the lead to five at 63-58 with just over a minute to play, but that is as close as the 'Birds would get as Valpo would knock down the free throws it needed to put SUU away. 1 “In the second half we got down and decided we had to push the ball a bit to get back in the game,” Evans said. “I thought we did a much better job of that, and we also did a much better job of taking care of the ball in the second half with only six turnovers. “We were able to shoot our way back into it but we came up short.” Baker coming off three straight games, in which he did not score, had his second strong game of the season against Valparaiso. Earlier this season in the Centrum Baker achieved a career- high of 23 points in the 'Birds 78-62 win in over Valpo. Women fall to Crusaders The SUU women'’s basketball team lost 5748 to confernce leader Valparaiso in a defensive battle Saturday afternoon at Valparaiso, but will have a chance to rebound with a game tonight against Western Illinois. The Lady 'Birds came out determined to avenge a 77-59 homecourt loss to the Lady Crusaders earlier this season. The "Birds hung with Valpo in the first half as they built a five-point lead late in the first half before settling for a three-point halftime the Jan. 14 game in Cedar City, Schober tied a career-high with 28 points in the Lady Crusaders’ victory. SUU falls to 4-6 in the Mid-Con and 8-14 overall. The 'Birds will resugne their three game road trip tonight at Western Illinois. Western Illinois (11-11, 3-6) is coming off 4 68:58 home win over Chicago State on Saturday. E The Westerwinds lost earlier this season in Cedar City to the 'Birds 69-54 as Hille lead at 22-19. Valpo would open the second half with a and Woolston combined to scote 37 of the "Birds 69 points in the win. Howeyer, as the record between WIU and 5-0 run to regain the lead at 24-22, but Tracksters in dual meets The SUU track and field teams were in action Saturday with meets in Arizona and Iowa. - The Iowa State Classic was a national qualifying meet for those athletes trying to make it to nationals. The Northern Arizona/Days Inn Invitational more or less gave younger SUU athletes a chance to gain some expericnce in competing. At Towa, Heather Houle finished in 35th place in the women’s 200 meters with a time of 25.69. Krystle Smart finished 50th in the race with a time of 26.02. In the women’s 400 meters, Sara Oldroyd finished in 29th place with a time of 58.63. Ashley Whiting finished 35th with a time of SUU would counter with a 7-0, including a three-point basket by Lindsay Hille, to take another five- 59.10. Natalie Quilter finished 13th in the point lead at 29-24. However, the the SUU lead would not women’s one-mile run with a time 5:03.48. Alisha Bezanson came in 22nd place with a last as the Lady Crusaders would use a Ranisom Minyard recorded a time of 8.41 in the:men's 60 meter hurdles good enough for a 26th place finish. At NAU, Stacy Wilson finished in 21st place in the women's 200 meters Wwith a mark of 26.69. Kandice Eardley finished with 23rd with a mark of 26.82. In the women's 400 meters Raelene Williams finished fifth with a time of 58.87. Lindsay Nieporte came in 12th (59.46), Arianne Brown finished 16th (1:01.26), Wilson finished 17th (1:01.37) and Alanna Liddle came in 18th at 1:01.83. In the women’s one-mile run, Robyn Yandley finished second with a time of 5:34.17. Maegan Schmutz with a time of 5:37.80 finished third. . 18-6 run over an 11-minute period to mark of 5:09.48. seal the victory. Valpo would rally from a five-point deficit in the run to take the lead for good. Kelly Richards finished 15th in the women’s 800 meter run w1t11 a time of Nieporte and Kira Thompson were topfive finishers in the women’s 800 meters. 2:01595) On the men's side, Dan Anderson finished 16th in the men’s 400 meters with a time of 51.45. Daniel Bennett finished 18th. Seth On the men’s With Valpo leading 42-35, the 'Birds would get close again as Sally Johnson and Megan Woolston hit consecutive jumpers to cut the lead to three, but that would be as close as SUU would get the rest of the way. Valpo extended the lead on its next two possessions with back-to-back three-pointers to . erase any SUU hopes of a rally. The 'Birds were led by Caroline Heaton who missed her sixth doubledouble of the season by just two rebounds. Heaton scored 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Johnson was the only other 'Bird in double figures with 10 points, eight of which came in the first half. Both teams experienced a coldshooting afternoon as both shot well below 40 percent for the game. SUU : In the men’s 800 meters Majeed Abude finished 72nd after recording a time of LS Zak James finished in 27th place in the men’s 3,000 meters with a time of 8;20.94. side, Marques Rose fimshed 28th in the men’s 400 meters with a time of 49.01. James Wood came in 53rd with a Gymnasts strong at ASU | i The SUU gymnastics team scored seasonhighs on three of four events en route to a season-best 192,375 at Arizona State to finish fourth behind the 17th-ranked Sun Devils, Oregon State and Cal-State Fullerton. ASU and OSU each finished meet best of = / ! Kim Hemenway leads the SUU attack. Hemenway scored three points in the 57-48 loss at Valparaiso Saturday afternoon. " made just 21-0f:62 shots for just 33.9 percent, while Valpo made 19-0f:54 shots for 35.2 percent. The Lady Crusaders outrebounded SUU 46-35, including a 32-25 advantage on the glass. Valpo was led by Jeanette Gray who scored 15 points and pulled down 11 Thompson finished third in the men’s one- mile run with a time of 4:41.15 mark of 50.08. SUU shows tonight's game is anything but a given for the 'Birds. SUU owns a 6-4 series edge over WIU. The road team has never won in the series, with SUU recording a neutral court victory in the first round of the 1999 Mid-Con tournament. After tonight's game the 'Birds will be at Chicago State Saturday. rebounds. Amber Schober was held to only seven points on three-of-seven shooting. In SU softball team —Mark Jones 195.800. Cal-State Fullerton finished at 194.800. All four teams’ scores were season highs. SUU once again relied on its freshmen as where Geronimo (9.80) finished with a 9.80 or better for the third straight meet. Jayme Morgan had a season-best 9.750 and Talayna Fortunato tied her career-best with a 9,725 mark. Geronimo finished third overall with a mark of 38.975, which is the team’s best all-around mark of the season.. “We had easily the best all-around meet of the floor this season. the season,” coach Scott Bauman said. “Carly [Geronimo] had a great meet and overall we looked much more confident out there tonight. We still had too many falls, but those are going down and we're definitely headed in the right direction.” ! Geronimo scored a personal best on the bars with a mark of 9.825, which was also a individual best for the season. Erica Burk, making her 2002 season debut, scored a 9.70, counting miscues on vault and beam. On" the vault three gymnasts stumbled on the; landings while two fell on beam. Molly Bauer (9.850) and Carly Geronimo (9.775) led the ’Birds to a season best on the floor with a mark of 48.775. Bauer’s mark was also the team’s best individual score on SUU had falls on the vault, bars and bmm‘u il while Rachel Thomas had a 9.750 to help the “That's a great improvement over la team to a 48.325 on the bars, another season high. The third team-high was on the beam, where we had to count a couple of falls'on weck every event but floor,” Bauman said SUU will be at home against BYU Erida finishes 3-2 at Cal-Poly tournament The SUU softball team was in action this weekend at the Cal Poly Mustang Roundup in San Luis Obispo, Calif., with games scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, the Lady 'Birds split a pair a games. SUU started ~ the day by defeating Colorado State 1-0. The 'Birds scored the only run of the game in the first frame as Cortnie Anderson singled in Anna Leeman. SUU’s Lacee LePrey cliched the four- hit shutout by striking out five Rams to improve to 1-1 on the season. CSU’s Melanie Mahoney took the loss to fall o 0-1 on the season. “It’s nice to pick up a tourney-opening victory,” said coach Laurel Simmons. “We just need to keep the momentum going today.” However, the momentum gained in the victory was lost in the second game of the day as SUU dropped a 4-0 decision to UC Santa Barbara Friday afternoon. UC Santa Barbara scored all four runs in the sixth frame as Natalie Adaze drove in two runs and scored another for the victory. Crystal Bingham, pitched four innings in relief, took the loss for the 'Birds to fall to 1-2 on the season. SUU could only manage four hits as Sylvia Santos pitched a complete game to improve to 2-0 on the season. Saturday proved to be better for the 'Birds as they swept a pair of games to improve to 5-4 on the season. In the first game of the day, SUU rallied to defeat host Cal Poly 9-7. The "Birds allowed five first inning runs, four coming on a swing of a bat as Natalie Carrillo hit a grand slam over the left field fence. However, the 'Birds were able to take advantage of four Cal Poly errors in the thitd inning to get back in the game. The Mustangs countered with single tuns in the fourth ancl fifth innings before SUU slammed the door shut on Cal Poly with four runs in the sixth inning. LePrey got the complete game victory to improve to 2-1 on the season. Jen Graver took the loss for Cal Poly, she falls to 1-1 on the season. In Saturday’s nightcap, the 'Birds captured a hard-fought 2-0 win over Santa Clara as the 'Birds scored twice in the fourth inning. Tracy Evans allowed just four hits as she earned the complete game shutout for SUU and improved to 2-1 on the season. “The kids came out intense,” Simmons said. “Everyone came + to play and contributed. I loved seeing how our team it i continually battled today.” In Sunday’s game, SUU fell to 5-5 on the season as it lost 6to Southwest Missouri State. Bingham took the loss for the 'Birds as she allowed three runs on seven hits in three innings. |