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Show Final Home Series for T-Birds "Performance" and "Prevention" are the two magic words for the final home series of the season for the Southern Utah State College basketball team. "There's probably little doubt in anyone's mind that we'll be facing one of the better college division teams in the nation in this final home series," Stan Jack, SUSC coach explains. "There's also no question but what we'll be facing one of the best scorers in the country." Jack's Thunderbirds will , battle Mark Cassidy and a supporting cast from New Mexico Highlands University Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in War Memorial Fieldhouse. Monday, alsoat 7:30 p.m., Western New ' Mexico University comes to town. Cassidy is the nation's third leading NAIA scorer, according to the latest national statistics. Highlands ranks ninth in the current Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings stan-dings (two rungs below SUSC), but the Cowboys just finished knocking off Western State and high flying Southern Colorado. "You bet-they can be tough," SUSC's Jack emphasizes: em-phasizes: "They play with great intensity, and they never give up. We were way ahead of them in our game there, and they came back and almost beat us." Cassity is a 6-3 forward who averages just over 31 points per game. He gets good support from freshman Lance Curtis, a 6-4 forward, who averages 15 points and ,11.5 rebounds. "What we must do is prevent an upset by Highlands," Jack says. "They'll be sky high after beating Southern Colorado. They are an emotional ball team, and we've got to keep them under control.'" . The problem Monday against WEstern New Mexico will be somewhat different, according to Jack: "We'll simply have to play to our potential, if we expect to stay on the court with those guys." Western New Mexico pinned a 96-63 loss on the T-Birds T-Birds earlier this season at Silver City, NM. They used team poise and pressure defense to run to a quick and big lead which the Thunderbirds Thun-derbirds never did threaten. "Western has an excellent group of players. They are well coached, and they play well together," Jack says. If the Mustangs do have a standout player, it would be Harold Ware, a 6-6 forward who tops the team in both scoring (19.5 per game) and rebounding (7.2 per contest). Balance is much of the WNM secret of success. . Guard Darryl Ransom (6-3) and forward Virgil Jenkins average 15.5 and 10.6 points respectively. Jenkins is also the team's second most prolific rebounder. "If we can perform the way .. we'd like, we'll give them a heck of a game," Jack says. "We got behind early, and never did get going down there; I know that our guys would like to make a better showing this time around." WNM's Coach Dick Drangmeister has never coached his team to a win in War Memorial Fieldhouse. He makes no secret about this bothering him. The closest he came was last season in the NAIA District Seven playoffs when he extended the Thunderbirds to six overtimes before losing, 93-92. The Mustangs have played very strong on the road. They lead the RMAC with a 12-1 record and apparently pose a very serious threat to the continued domination by Grand Canyon of NAIA District Seven. SUSC still has an outside chance to earn a berth in this year's eight team district playoff field, but another home . loss would almost kill the 'Birds chances. Dave Knudsen, Russ Hafen, and Brett Bell continue con-tinue to pace T-Bird scoring and rebounding stats. Knudsen leads in scoring (13.8) and ranks third in rebounding (6.2). Hafen is second in scoring (12.8) and first on the boards (8.1). Bell is second in reboudning (6.8) and third in scoring (11.8). |