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Show L THE THUNDERBJRDO SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITYO MONDAY JANUARY 6. 19920 PAGE 10 Gymnasts open tonight SUV team captain Chris Becker is expected to lead the Lady 'Birds in the 1992 season. Lady 'Birds now 1-8 SUU women's basketball team is infamous for its fast starts in recent games, but, as it has been turning out, when the final score is tallied, they fall short. Fast starts against BYU, UTEP, Montana, and Weber State didn' t pan out as expected as in the end the Lady ' Birds lost ' their leads and the games . In Saturday night's contest against the Cougars, the Lady TBirds hit five of their first seven shots to take and early 10-5 lead , but th e after the hot start they went ice cold . During the cold spell, the Cougars went on a 15-0 run and the lead slipped for the Lady ' Birds fingers. The Co ugars went on another run at 17-9 to take a 37-19. Coming out of the locker room th e C ou gars built their lead and with four m inutes remaining held a commanding 79-6 1 lead , but Sou thern U tah cut the lead to nine at 79- 70 with under two m inutes rema ining in the game. The Lady ' Birds couldn't get any closer and fell 85-72. Candice Lords canned 21 points while collecting eight rebounds and seven steals a nd Becky Schofield added 14 points and pulled down 14 rebounds. The sam e held true for the Lady 'Birds when they battled Mont~n a. They jumped out to an early lead, but the stren gth, experience and height of the G rizzlies came out as they beat the Southern Utah 84-54. SUU's 9-6 lead quick.Jy faded, bu t Amy ( Hughes) Gubler nailed a jumper with six minu tes left in the half to knot the score at 19-all. From there things went downhill. Schofield led all SUU scorers with 18 points and Lords added 16 poin ts . In Ogden, the Lady ' Birds had touble finding the basket as they shot just 31 percent from the floor in the 80-55 loss. Lord s paced SUU with 19 poin ts. In their home opener against T exas El P aso, thr. Lady M iners held off a late Southern Utah charge to hold off the Lady ' Birds 75-69. After trailing b y as many as 19, the Lady T -Birds went on a 36- 18 run to cut the lead to one po int at 50-49. Schofield's b ucket with fou r m inutes to go even the score at 63, but UTEP scored 12 points against SUU's six to win at 75-69 . Lords led the Southern Utah squad with 23 points, while Schofield and H eather Sonne added 17 and 11 points, respectively. An exciting schedule packed with home meets and top-20 opponents faces the SUU gymnastics squad this winter. No less than five top-10 and 10 top-20 schools dot the regular season schedule, beginning with BYU J anuary 13, and ending with a fourway meet with Utah State, Nebraska and Boise State March 16. The season starts with the annual intra-squad meet tonight at 7:30 p.m . in the Centrum. Following the BYU meet, the TBirds will travel to Salt Lake City to compete with Utah, Utah State and BYU J anuary 20. AU three schools have pre-season top-10 squads, with Utah hold ing the number one ranking. Denver University then travels to Cedar C ity for a J anuary 31 meet, followed by a February home meet against New M exico. Southern Utah closes out February with a pair of mee ts in Colorado, traveljng to Denver for a three-way meet with DU and Ok.Jahoma before meeting the Air Force Academy. The lady gymnasts return to home territory for the final home meet of the season when they battle USU. Two meets in California, against Cal Davis and Sacramento State are a prelude to the penultimate meet of the season, a three-way meet with BYU and Boise State in Provo. The regular season then concludes with the four-way meet at Utah State. NCAA regionals begin April 11 in Sait Lake, while national finals are in Minneapolis, Mn., April 24-25. "I really like (the schedule)," said Coach Scott Bauman. "We won't ever improve our level without going up against these kinds of teams. The girls will be forced to learn how to compete hard. I don't believe you can be the best withou t going up against the best. "We have (five) home meets against some of the best schools in the country," said Bauman. " BYU finished ninth last year, USU was 12th, but they'll be much improved ." 'Bird cagers win seven of nine-= BY JAY HINTON Thunderbird Sports Ediior The final month of 1991 went out in fine fashion for the SUU men's basketball team. Filled with many high points, including a 7-2 record for that month and the first two days of 1992, the holiday games in the Centrum were the highlights of the youn g season. In the Centrum, the ' Birds beat Big Sky squads W eber State and M ontana 102-89 and 74-65, respectively, before losing to Montana State 103-91 . Before suffe ring their second loss of the holiday b reak to the Stanford Card inal 89-71 on J an uary 2, the T -Birds returned to the welcome confines of the Cen trum in late December a nd h andliy beat Cal Poly Pomona 93-77 and San Diego State 104-82. The ' Birds have dropped only one home game this season and it was to Nebraska in the ' Birds' home opener on November 30. Not only did the holiday season prove fruitful in the win department, b ut the Thunderbirds gained national recognition. Sen ior forward Dana Achtzehn was as high as 23rd in the country in scoring al 23.5 points per game, the SUU squad ranks eight in the nation in foul shooting, and going into the Montana State encounter the ' Birds ranked 26th in the n ation in power ranki ng. After setting ou t a full season due to two reconstructive kn ee surgeries, R ichard Barton, who was SUU's leading scorer after five gam es last season before su ffering the injury, returned to the starting lineup. Senior Forward Davor Marcelic surpassed Skip Mead's all-time scoring record of 1,275 points when he buried a 3-pointer with 5:28 remaining against San Diego State Dec. 28. Marcelic's 34 points that night left the total at 1,291 points, but his 30-point outbusrt against the Cardinal increases the mark to 1,319 with only one-third of the season completed . The Cardinal took advantage of SUU 's cold shooting to build a 50-26 halftime lead. The ' Birds cut the led to 12, but in end fell 89-71 . Achtzehn led all SUU scorers and rebounders with 28 points including 12- 17 sh ootin g and 11 rebound s as the ' Birds bounced in-state rival W eber State 102-89 . Two nights later , Southern Utah knocked off another Big Sky school with a 74-65 beatin g of Montana. Achtzehn and M arcelic led the ' Birds with 20 point ap iece. In Bozeman, Mt., SUU's five-game winning streak came to a close as the Bobcats shot a blistering 60 percent from the threepoint line, to upend the 'B irds 103-91. SUU's 25-9 run early in the second half broke the game open as they whipped Cal P oly Pomona 93-77. Against SDSU, SUU con trolled the game from the opening tip by taking an early 8-0 lead. T hey contin ued to build on the lead th rought the first half and at intermission held a comfort~ble 55-36 advantage. T he Azte.cs came out strong early in the second half an d cut the lead to eight points, but the ' Birds relied on 15-16 fro m the foul line in the final IO minutes to ice the game Marcelic got back on track with a gamehigh 34 points, while Achtzehn scored 23 points and Barton scored 21 points. In two games before the holidays, the 'Birds beat Illinois State 84-81 and Evansville 98-93 on their first of two trips to the Midwest. The T-Birds will be at home January 9, at 7:30 p.m. when they host Fort Lewis. I • |