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Show ., ' THE THUNDERBIRDO SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITYO MONDAY MARCH 2, 19920 PAGE 11 Marcelic nets record in SUU win over CSUN BY JAY HINTON Thunderbird Sports Editor SUU's D®or Marcelic goes in for two of hi.s game-high 35 points. Marcelic passed Ted Thomas for the most points scored in single season. In SUU' s 89-75 win over Cal State Northridge Saturday, Davor Marcelic made history with his 35-point outing. Going into the game Marcelic needed 11 points to become the leader in most points scored in a single season . With 6:41 to play in the opening half Marcelic nailed two free throws to tie Ted Thomas' 1988 record of 611 points and on the next trip down the floor he canned a three-point jumper to become number one in the category. Marcelic, who is also the career scoring leader for SUU, now has 635 points this season and he' ll have one more chance to add to the total tomorrow night in SUU' s season finale when it plays host to the University of Idaho. One month ago the Vandals handed the Thunderbirds their worst loss of the season 91-70 in Moscow, Idaho, so SUU will look to return the favor . " They beat us pretty good up in Moscow, " said SUU Head Coach Bill Evans. "We're hoping to get a little revenge here. '' In getting revenge SUU will have to stop Orlando Lightfoot, a player Evans considers one of the best in the Big Sky. Against the Matadors, Evans said that he felt the key to the ballgame was the Thunderbirds' ability to execute offensively. " These kids are so coachable," said Evans. " I told them they didn ' t need to be fancy, I just want you to keep the ball in play and make sure you get the ball to the right people. They do exactly what they' re told to do." Marcelic and Dana Achtzehn teamed up to be the hot men for the Thunderbirds offensively. Behind Marcelic's 35, Acht.z ehn scored 23 . Achtzehn scored six of SUU' s first eight to put the ' Birds up 8-3 with 16 minutes left in the half. The ' Birds built their lead to 11 points on one of Marcelic's four three-pointers. Southern Utah gained its largest lead of the half at 17 points on two of Achtzehn's 10 first half points. The ' Birds went into the locker room ahead 46-29 behind Marcelic' s 20-point half and Achtzehn' s 10. The T-Birds and Marcelic picked up where they left off with Marcelic hitting two two-pointers and a trey to catapult the ' Birds to a 53-35 advantage. Northridge scraped back to a sevenpoint deficit with 9:30 to go, but the Thunderbirds capitalized from the foul line in the remaining eight minutes to move to 19-8 on the year. Gymnastic finale tonight Diamondmen drop five in LV The SUU gymnastic squad is fresh off the best performance in school history after a pair of road meets in which the team broke the school scoring record on consecutive nights. The Lady ' Birds will have to repeat their performance tonight as they host 12th-ranked Utah State in their final home meet of the year in the Centrum. Friday, Feb. 21, the team posted an SUU-best-ever 188.69 at a meet hosted by Denver University only to come back Saturday night at Air Force Academy with a 189.90. "The girls were just dead-solid steady,'' said Gymnastic Coach Scott Bauman. "We've known all along that the skills were there if we could just clean up their form. It's finally starting to work.'' Bauman said his team will have to come back tonight with the same type of effort if the T-Birds want to be competitive with USU. The nationally-ranked Aggies are a deep and solid team, led by seniors Barb Zahl, Michelle Bugbee and Brenda Scholl. The Aggies' average score is 188.91. "They' re tough and they're very deep," said Bauman. "I saw them rest a lot of kids against Oklahoma and still just destroy them. They've got the three all-arounders (Zahl, Bugbee, and Scholl) but the rest of their team is awesome too." The T-Birds have been on roll of late however. Going into last weekend, the team had bettered the second-best score in school history three consecutive times without breaking the school record. The SUU baseball team found rough sailing in the four-team Coors Desert Classic Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday through Saturday. The 'Birds dropped five games. The first came to the nationallyranked UNLV Rebels Thursday where Rebel pitching two-hit the ' Birds in the 17-0 rout. Friday afternoon Oregon State beat the 'Birds 8-2 and later that afternoon Northwestern blanked the T-Birds 9-0. Saturday afternoon Southern Utah faced the Rebels again and lost 14-2. 'Bird pitching gave up 17 walks. "We've been struggling from the plate,'' said Assistant Coach Tom O'Gorman. "We had no more than 15 hits in the first four games." SUU finished up the tournament Sunday afternoon with a loss to OSU. The 1-13 T-Birds will look to break their 10-game slide March 6-8 at Cal State Fullerton. SUU will be at Thunderbird Park March 14 with a doubleheader with Metro State, March 20 with Northern Colorado and March 21 with Metro. Softballers drop fi·ve, now 0-7 The S UU softball team got a taste of In the final game of the day, host NCAA Division I ball Thursday UNLV ~hut out the Lady through Saturday in the UNLV Spring Thunderbirds 6-0. Fling Softball Classic in Las Vegas, Saturday, with the game tied 1-1 , Nev. The 'Birds dropped all five u~u scored one run in the eighth to games. ta.lee the 2-1 victory. Tara Tremblay led In the first of three games Friday, SUU by going 3-4. SU and Southwest Louisiana were tied In the final game Oregon whipped at 3-3 going into the sixth, but SWL SUU 13-5. Melanie Harris and Joni scored once and SUU couldn' k answer Reynolds led SUU<~ensively by going back in the seventh. Sue Barrht led the 2-3 from the plate. ...,. Southern Utah at the plate with two Southern Utah wil\ look for its first hits in three trip to the plate. win of the season on March 7 when it In the second tame, SUU managed hosts Utah State at the Thunderbird four hits as O regon stopped SUU 9-1. .. softball complex . |
